678 



the glandular cells, which in Acanthoclrilus form a continuous covering 

 to the lining epithelium, are segregated into groups ; and this is ac- 

 companied by a branching of the cavity ; it is important to notice that 

 the vas deferens opens into the conjoined ducts of the glands before 

 the latter becomes continuous with the muscular atrium. 



These facts lead to the conclusion that the so called »prostate« 

 of Perichaeta is the homologue of the atrium in other 

 earthworms and in the Limicolae. In earthworms therefore there 

 are two organs which have been termed »prostates«. (1) The atrium 

 of Acanthoclrilus^ Perichaeta etc. (2) The atrium -\- prostate of 

 Moniligaster^. 



3. Note on the Reproductive organs of Moniligaster. 



By F. E. Bed dard, London. 



eingeg. 2. November 1887. 



The reproductive organs of this remarkable Lumbricid have been 

 described in three apparently different species by P erri er', Horst 2, 

 and myself 'l My description agrees in the main with that of Horst; 

 while we both differ in many important particulars from Perrier. 



According to Perrier M. Deshayesiia provided with two pairs of 

 male sexual pores, each furnished with its own prostate, vas deferens 

 and testis; the structure of these various organs is described in some de- 

 tail. Horst and myself find only a single pair of male sexual orifices 

 which correspond in position to the hindermost of the two pairs which 

 Perrier believes to exist in this genus; in the species described by 

 myself these orifices are between segments 9 — 10, in that of Horst 

 between 11 — 12. 



The anterior pair of orifices, that which opens between segments 

 7 and 8, is connected in M. Barwelli with a spermathcca and not with 

 an anterior pair of vasa deferentia and testes ; moreover in that species 

 the aperture is on the boundary line between segments 6 and 7 ; in iü. 

 Ilouleni the structure of the reproductive organs is in this respect more 

 like that of J/. Barwelli than M. Dcshayesi. Horst describes a single 

 »kidney shaped pouch« on each side of the intestine in segment 9, which 

 is connected »with a long, slender, coiled tube, communicating with the 

 exterior by . . . the pores between the Sth and i)tli ring«. There is, it 

 appears to me, an unlikelihood, from what we know of the structure of 



^ For the present I do not consider the »atrium« of Criodrilus. 



1 Nouv. Arch. d. Mus. t. Vili. (1872.) p. 133. 



-' Notes fr. Leydcn Mus. Vol. IX. p. 98. 



3 Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. Feb. 1880. p. 95. 



