170 FEANK E. BEDDAKD. 



tlie Diachseta investigated by myself. There is nothing in 

 the structure of these organs that calls for particular remark. 



§ Ovaries and Oviducts. 



There is a single pair of ovaries in Segment xiii ; the ovi- 

 ducts open into the same segment and on to the exterior on 

 Segment xiv, on a line with and between the ventral setae ; 

 aperture is distinct. 



§ Spermathecse. 

 There are three pairs of these organs in Segments vii, 



VIII; IX. 



The first spermathecaj although lying in Segment vii, opens 

 on to the exterior in Segment vi ; its duct perforates the 

 thickened intersegmental septum separating these two seg- 

 ments, and opens on to the exterior distinctly in front of the 

 intersegmental groove. This fact appears to me to be of 

 some little importance, and for the following reasons. Ben- 

 ham has mentioned that in D. Thomasii the sperma- 

 theca are in Segments vi, vii, viii, i.e. a segment farther 

 forward than in the present form ; but the apertures are, 

 according to Benham, placed posteriorly in each segment ; 

 accordingly, the present species, though differing in many par- 

 ticulars from D. Thomasii, and, among others, in the fact 

 that the spermatheca are in vii, viii, ix, instead of vi, vii, viii, 

 agrees in the important fact that the external aperture has 

 remained in the same place, uninfluenced by the slight alte- 

 ration of the segmentation ; a very slight shifting in the 

 attachment of the intersegmental septum, such as occurs in 

 many worms — for example, in Hormogaster (Rosa, 9, 11) — 

 would place the spermatheca entirely in the vith segment. 



I have myself pointed out an analogous change in the posi- 

 tion of the spermatheca of Allolobophora complanata. 

 In this case, therefore, it is clear that the spermatheca^ of 

 Diachajta are homologous in both species, and that their posi- 

 tion is only apparently and not really changed. 



