Australian Earthirorms. 227 



except the first. They are arranged irregularly and have no 

 funnels, the tubule being simply a short coil containinsr an 

 intracellular duct which continues from one nephridiuui to 

 another, the exact connection of which, with irregularly placed 

 minute openings to the exterior, I have been unable to make 

 out. There is, however, as far as I have seen, no continuation 

 of these ducts from one segment to another. In this species 

 there are no peptonephridia. 



2. — Megascolex fieldepi, Spencer: 



syn, Peiichaeta tielderi, Spencer (16), p. 19. 



Xo nephridiopores are visible. 



Both micro and meganephridia are present, the presence of 

 the latter being indicated by the occurrence of funnels in cer- 

 tain segments of the body. Glandular tufts of nephridial 

 tubules are present in the anterior segments, which are re- 

 garded as doubtful peptonephridia by Professor Spencer (16), p. 

 19, but which do not appear in my sections to open into the 

 alimentary canal. 



Macro-!ropir Structure. — When the earthworm is opened from 

 the dorsal surface, nephridia are seen to be present in great 

 numbers in all the segments, especially in the clitellar region. 

 From about the twentieth segment to the posterior end of the 

 body they are arranged in a fairly definite row in each segment. 

 and are more or less attached to one another. Xo funnels can 

 be seen in the anterior part of the body, but towards the 

 posterior end the funnels become more and more numerous, as 

 many as fourteen being counted in one segment. At the same 

 time the characteristic row of nephridia does not alter. The 

 position of the nephridial fimnels seems to be quite irregular, 

 and they vary in number in the different segments. In one 

 specimen of 134 segments the funnels "were counted. The most 

 anterior one occurred in segment 93 on one side only. This 

 was followed by one here and there [Fig. 5. F], back to seg- 

 ment 110, after which there were numerous funnels in each 

 segment. The presence of the funnels does not seem to entail 

 any perceptible difference in the size or number of the 

 nephridia in each segment. Throughout the body, posterior to 



