174 Transactions. — Zoology. 



bed, and under half-dried cakes of cow-manure. In habits it 

 is extremely inactive, and when touched or handled curls up 

 and remains motionless for a considerable time. In the living 

 worm the natural colour in some specimens is pale-pink, while 

 others are almost transparent, and show the dorsal blood- 

 vessel through the clear body-wall. It is a vei-y distinct and 

 handsome little worm, and forms pretty spirit specimens. The 

 following is an abstract of Beddard's paper describing the 

 species : — 



"This is a small and slender worm, but I have not pre- 

 served any accurate notes of its dimensions ; it was about 

 lin. in length, and something like 1mm. in diameter. This 

 species is a near ally of Acanthodrilus amiecte?is, which I have 

 already referred to as possibly worthy of generic separation 

 from the AcantliodrilidcB with paired nephridia. 



" The present species has the same arrangement of the 

 setae, which are not modified upon any of the segments of the 

 body. I did not describe, in my account of Acanthodrilus 

 annectens,--' the fact that only one of the two ventral setae is 

 missing on the segments which bear the atrial pores — i.e., 

 xvii. and xix. ; the apertures take the place of the missing 

 outer seta of the ventral couple ; on the eighteenth segment 

 both setae of the ventral pair are present ; the pore itself lies 

 to the outside of the pair. Acanthodrilus paludosus shov/s 

 exactly the same arrangement, and both species therefore 

 differ from Acanthodrilus s?nithi and from the other New 

 Zealand species of Acanthodrilus in this matter : in them the 

 ventral setae are entirely absent from the seventeenth and 

 nineteenth segments. 



"The clitellum was not developed, though in other 

 respects the worm appeared to be fully matured. 



" The gizzard lies in segments v. and vi., but only one- 

 fourth of the organ lies in the anterior segment. Calciferous 

 glands are, as in Acanthodrilus annectens, totally absent ; the 

 intestine begins in the twentieth segment ; some of the septa 

 are thickened. 



" There is a mucous gland, and the nephridia are paired. 



" The gonads are normal in position; they are situated on 

 the posterior face of their segments, as is the case with A. 

 annectens. Opposite to them are the funnels of the ducts, 

 which are like those of other species, and occupy the same 

 segments. The sperm-ducts, however, agree with those of 

 A. annectens to differ from those of most other earthworms, 

 in running within the thickness of the body-wall ; they retain 

 their individuality until just before the external aperture. 



" The atria have no peculiarities of structure ; there are no 



• Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. xxv., pp. 122-124. 



