126 DESCRIPTIONS OF EARTHWORMS. 



each furnished with a central duct, that communicates 

 with the sac, containing the bristle^). 



It is a well-known fact, that also in other species of 

 earthworms (f. i. Lumbricus , Acanthodrilus) , which possess 

 modified setae , these are not confined to the segments , 

 bearing the male generative pores ; however in those species 

 the genital setae of different regions of the body have all 

 the same appearance. Beddard ^) observed that in some 

 specimens of Ac. Layardi — a species suggested by me 

 to be identical with Ac. ungulatus Perr. — the ventral 

 pairs of setae on segment 8 , the same segment that con- 

 tains the anterior sperm athecae , were replaced by stout, 

 long bristles , very similar to the penial /setae. They were 

 contained in a thin -walled sac, precisely as are the geni- 

 tal setae. On either side of this sac he recognized a long, 

 somewhat sausage-shaped glandular body, which commu- 

 nicates by a slender duct with the orifice, through which 

 the setae project on to the exterior. Beddard believes these 

 glands to be the equivalents of the glands , which he found 

 in Ac. multiporus corresponding to the setae. However 

 the large glands , observed in our species , do not appear 

 to me to be referable to the same category, but they 

 may be rather special structures , hitherto not observed in 

 any species of earthworms, as far I am aware of. 



There are two pairs of copulatory pouches , situated in 

 segment 8 and 9 (fig. 1 and 2 , sp); they consist of large, 

 globular bodies, communicating with the exterior by a 

 short, stout-walled duct. At the under extremity of the 

 duct, not far from its external aperture, it possesses at 

 the anterior and the posterior side a small diverticulum ; 

 these diverticula, only obvious in transverse sections, have 

 their cavity divided in two or three compartments, which 

 are densely filled up with spermatozoa. It is a curious 



1) A more detailed account of the minute structure of the genital region 

 I hope to publish elsewhere. 



2) Proceed. Zool. Society of London, 1886, p. 168. 



!N'otes from the Hjeyden IMuseum, Vol. X. 



