W. W. Smith. — Oil Neio Zealand Earthtvorms. 1G7 



refer to genus Acanthodrilus scnsu stricto. I am doubtful about 

 Acantliodrilus anncctens, a species which I described some 

 years since.''' In possessing paired nephridia it agrees with 

 Acanthodrilus (s.s.), but it has the 'mucous gland' of Octo- 

 chcstns, and the gonads are placed in contact with the funnels 

 of their ducts, as is the case with three of the species which I 

 refer to this genus Octochcetus. It has the further peculiarity 

 that the sperm-ducts run in the thickness of the body-wall, a 

 peculiarity which it apparently shares with the genus Octo- 

 chcstus, but which, among other Oligochceta, is rare, and only 

 found, so far as I am aware, in Diplocardia communis and in 

 the not-nearly-allied form Siplwnog aster. The absence of calci- 

 ferous glands is occasionally met with in Acantliodrilus. 



" I shall now describe two apparently new species which 

 I refer to my genus Octochcetus ." 



Genus Octoch^tus, Beddard. 



Octochsetus thomasi,! Beddard. Pro. Zool. Soc, Lond., 



1892, p. 671. 



The present species is not uncommon on some parts of 

 the Canterbury Plains. Except Acanthodrilus paludosus (to 

 be described in the present paper), it lingers longer in well- 

 cultivated gardens and fields than any other native species I 

 have observed. The size and number of segments in mature 

 individuals vary considerably. The colour is pale, almost 

 transparent, brown, with dull-yellowish clitellum. In habits 

 it is the most active form of the four indigenous species of 

 Octochcetus, and succeeds well when kept in large flower-pots 

 in fresh soil. Appended is Mr. Beddard' s anatomical descrip- 

 tion of the species : — 



" I have received on various occasions during the last few 

 years examples of a small-sized Acanthodrilid from Now 

 Zealand, which I have hitherto confounded with 0. multi- 

 2)orus. I regarded these individuals merely as small speci- 

 mens of that species. A full-sized specimen of 0. multiporus 

 is a very large worm, measuring even in a contracted condi- 

 tion some 14in. in length by iin. or so in breadth. On the 

 other hand, the w^orms which I now consider to represent a 

 new species of this genus are of a much more slender build. 



" The external characters of the species recall 0. nudti- 

 porus. The prostoviiuvi is not continued by grooves on to the 

 buccal segment ; that segment and the two following are not 

 annulate; segments iv., v., vi. are triannulate, the middle 

 annulus being much the narrowest ; segments vii., viii., ix. are 



* " On the Structure of Three New Species of Earthworms, &c.," 

 Q.J.M.S., vol. xxix., p. 102. 



t Named after Professor A. P. Thomas, of Auckland, New Zealand. 



