141 



LUMBRICILLUS Oersted 



The name Lnmhricillus was first used by Oersted in 1844, but was 

 not given a permanent place in the nomenclature until 1900. Previous 

 to that time the old name Pachydrilus, of Claparede, was in common 

 use, but Michaelsen, finding that the name Luiiibricillus antedated 

 Pachydrilus, replaced the latter by Liunbricilliis, which is now accepted 

 by most workers in OHgochcuta. The genus is defined by Michaelsen 

 ('00, p. 78) as follows: ''Kopfporus klein, zwischen Kopflappen und 

 I. Scgni. Borsten S-formig gebogen. Riickcnporen fehlen. Blut 

 gelb bis rot. Das Riickengefass entspringt postclitellial und besitzt 

 keinen Herzkorper. Peptonephridien fehlen. Hoden aus einer Anzahl 

 birnformiger Teilstiicke bestehend. Samenleiter lang. Samentaschen 

 ohne Divertikel." Eisen extends the above definition by adding points 

 concerning the testes, nephridia, and penial bulb. His definition of 

 the genus is as follows : "Setae sigmoid, arranged in fan-shaped 

 fascicles. Head pore small, situated between the prostomium and the 

 peristomium. Brain generally deeply emarginated posteriorly. Ventral 

 sexual glands around the ventral ganglion generally present. Blood 

 red or yellow. Dorsal vessel rises posteriorly to the clitellum. No 

 cardiac gland. No peptonephridia. Testes multilobed, each lobe 

 capped by a small sperm sac. Sperm ducts comparatively narrow. 

 Penial bulb without inner muscular strands, containing only numerous 

 glands of various kinds, some of which may open intO' the basal part 

 of the sperm duct. No atrium and no glands outside of the penial 

 bulb. Nephridia with entire postseptal and with an anteseptal which 

 consists merely of the nephrostome." The chief diagnostic characters 

 are the absence of dorsal pores, peptonephridia, and cardiac gland, 

 and the presence of sigmoid set?e and plurilobed testes. That the 

 ventral glands ("Kopulationsdriisen" of Michaelsen and Ude, 

 "copulatory glands" and "outgrowths of the nerve cords" of Bed- 

 dard, "ventral glands" of Eisen) are not diagnostic of the genus is 

 made apparent by the fact that Southern ('09, pp. 149 and 158) found 

 them in Marionina sonifusca Clap, and Bnchytrcuus lohatiis Southern. 

 Stephenson ('11, pp. 52, 58, 62) found them in Bnchytrcuus nodosus 

 Steph., and evidences of them in Bnchytrcuus sabulosus Southern and 

 Fridericia bulbosa Rosa. These glands are common to the genus but 

 evidently not distinctive characters. 



It has been recently shown that there is a close relationship be- 

 tween Ltmtbricillus and Bnchytrcuus. Stephenson ('11) has found in- 

 termediate species which serve to bridge over the interval between the 

 two genera. He described a new species from the Clyde, Lniiibricillus 



