563 



of the intestine into the XV. segment. This sac is lined Avith a thick 

 glandular looking epithelium and is probably identical with a similar 

 structure described by Michaelsen in Stuhlmannia. Had I not ascer- 

 tained that this sac and the perioesophageal ring communicates with 

 the ovarian sac and not with the orifice of the spermatheca (to be 

 mentioned presently) , I should have regarded it from the character of 

 the epithelium only as a spermatheca. 



The oviducts open laterally upon the XIV. segment. Each ovi- 

 duct is a short straight tube with ciliated epithelial lining and muscu- 

 lar walls; the funnel opens partly into the perioesophageal ring and 

 partly into the e^^ sac of its own side which in its turn seems to be 

 connected with the perioesophageal ring. 



On the middle line of the XIII. segment opens the bursa copu- 

 la tri x; this is a small globular sac from which arises a slender sper- 

 matheca with very muscular walls ; the spermatheca is entirely 

 enclosed by the left hand portion of the perioesophageal 

 ring and ends blindly in the interior of that coelomic 

 space. 



It is therefore quite invisible on a dissection of the worm, which 

 produces the impression that the perioesophageal spaces communicate 

 with the exterior through the bursa copulatrix. 



In nearly all the Eudrilidae the ovary is enclosed in a special sac 

 and in Eudrilus itself as I have pointed out (»Contributions to the Ana- 

 tomy of Earthworms« etc. Quart. Journ. Micr. Sc. Vol. XXX. p. 446 etc.) 

 this sac is of small extent and communicates directly with the exterior, 

 thus showing no little ressemblance to the Hirudinea. In the present 

 genus, for Avhich I propose the name of Hyperiodrilus, the ovarian sac 

 is singularly complicated and does not communicate by a special duct 

 with the exterior. I am disposed to think that the very curious genitalia 

 of Polytoreutus owe their appearance partly to a similar development 

 of the ovarian sacs. 



London, Aug. 21. 1890. 



III. Mittheilimgen aus Museen, Instituten etc. 



1. Linnean Society of New South Wales. 



27tli August, 1890. — 1) Reptiles from New Guinea. By C. W. De 

 Vis, M.A,, Corr. Mem. Fourteen species (Lacertilia 11, Ophidia 3), of 

 wMch three [Emoa pallkliceps, E. cuneiceps, and Homolepida Englishi) are 

 proposed as new, are herein recorded. The specimens were obtained on the 

 St, Joseph River by Mr. A. C. English, collector to his Honour Sir William 

 Macgregor, Administrator. — 2) On Queensland and other Australian Lepi- 



