DESCRIPTIONS OF EARTHWORMS. 23 



and it has about the same diameter over its whole length. 

 Its distal extremity (fig. 3) shows a conical point and 

 beneath this the seta is beset with circles of spines, over 

 a third of its length. 



The glandular body consists of two lobes, lying next 

 to each other, but each of them is provided with a 

 central canal, that opens next to a copulatory seta. 

 The gland consists of club-shaped cells, resembling those 

 of the prostata, which discharge their secretion into the 

 central caual. In Benh. Beddardi ^) , described by myself 

 some years ago , the copulatory setae in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the spermathecae are also joined by a glan- 

 dular body , which however is much larger and consists 

 of several lobes; its internal structure fully agrees with 

 that of B. liheriensis , for each lobe possesses a central canal , 

 which opens into the sheath of the copulatory setae. 



There are two pairs of spermathecae, differing in 

 shape from those of the smaller ^éwAamm-species ; each of 

 them (fig. 4) has a somewhat mushroom-like feature , and 

 consists of a rounded vesicle, with irregularly folded sur- 

 face and a short excretory duct. This duct shows at its 

 anterior and posterior side an enlargement , upon which 

 several wart-shaped excrescences are visible. Transverse 

 sections of the duct (fig. 5) prove that those warts en- 

 close small coeca, filled with spermatozoa; the lumen 

 of the duct is strongly folded and gives rise to several 

 tubular diverticles, which are dilated at their distal end 

 and those vesicles contain the spermatozoa. It struck my 

 attention , that the low epithelial cells , which as usually 

 line those coeca , not only present very indistinct bounda- 

 ries , but are nearly totally absent in some places, especially 

 where the balls of spermatozoa are lying against the wall 

 of the coeca. It seems to me very likely, that this epithe- 

 lium presents a stade of degeneration , and this fact seems 

 to favour the assertion of Beddard, made about the sper- 



1) loc. cit. vol. X, 1888, p. 123, pi. 6. 



Notes from the Leyden IVIuseriTn, "Vol. XVII. 



