228 W. B. BENHAM. 



Species 1. D. lumbricoides, E. P., 1872; New South 

 Wales. 



2. D. armifera, Fletcher, 1886; New South 



Wales. 



3. D. perrieri, Fletcher, 1888; New South Wales. 



See Perrier, * Nouv. Arch, du Mus. d'Hist. Nat. Paris/ 

 viii, 1872; Fletcher, ^ Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W.,' 2nd ser., 

 i and iii. 



Remarks on the Typhseidae. 



The beautiful monograph on Megascolides australis by 

 Professor Baldwin Spencer gives the details of the anatomy gene- 

 rally found in this group. Many of the genera are very closely 

 allied, no doubt. Fletcher's descriptions of the various species 

 are only verbal, and unaccompanied, except in his first paper, by 

 any figures. For instance, the description given by himof Peris- 

 sogaster and of Didymogaster rather lead me to think that 

 the two genera should be included in one genus. In the 

 former the prostates are said to be unequally lobed, i.e. the 

 posterior lobe occupies two somites; in the latter the two 

 lobes are equal. In Perissogaster, however, no dorsal pores 

 are present; in Didymogaster they are present. In Didy- 

 mogaster the spermathecal apertures are not intersegmental 

 as is the case in Perissogaster and other germs. This 

 seems to be the only point of real diflference ; for, as I 

 have remarked, the number of gizzards cannot of itself 

 furnish a generic character. Dichogaster difi'ers from any 

 other genera in possessing three pairs of prostates; the first 

 pair being in connection with the sperm-ducts, the two hinder 

 pairs being independent of them. Typhaeus, again, is a well- 

 marked genus, in possessing a single pair of sperm-sacs and 

 testes. 



In some species of Crypt odrilus, Fletcher and Beddard 

 describe large nephridia in all somites, and nephridiopores 

 which have an alternate or irregular arrangement with regard 

 to setse. It is very probable that a network will be found, in 

 all cases, in addition to these large nephridia. 



