STUDIES ON EARTHWORMS. 263 
wide duct, opening interiorly into somite x11 and exteriorly in 
somite x1v ; it is similar and similarly placed in Pontodrilus 
and Pericheta, and Acanthodrilus capensis; in Plu- 
tellus it isin somite x. In Eudrilus the neck of the so- 
called “‘spermatheca” acts as oviduct, according to Perrier. 
In Moniligaster the oviduct is exceptional in being in con- 
tinuity with the ovary and opening in somite x11. In other 
forms it is unknown, though frequently, as in Pleurocheta 
[and in Microcheta], funnels are known which may have 
this function. The pores of the oviducts are in line with the 
ventral sete, except in Pericheta and Perionyx, where 
they are median. 
Itis interesting to note that the oviduct in Plutellus opens 
interiorly and exteriorly in the same somite, as the nephridia 
of the same animal do, whilst in other forms both organs pass 
through a septum. 
The Spermathece.—These organs, being large and fre- 
quently complicated, are well known in nearly all the genera, 
and they may be used to subdivide the genera. They are in 
all cases but Eudrilus [and Microcheta, where they are 
twenty or more horse-shoe shaped organs, in 4 pairs of groups 
opening in a row] in front of the seminal reservoirs. In the 
former they consist of a pair of pyriform sacs seated on a long 
coiled duct, in somites x11 or xtv. The spermathece are 
usually globular or pyriform, and open laterally, dorsad of the 
ventral sete, though they sometimes, as in Pontodrilus, are 
in a line with the ventral (1 and 2) sete, and sometimes quite 
lateral asin Pericheta affinis. Even in the same genus 
they vary a great deal in number and in shape; Lumbricus 
subrubicunda has only asingle pair in somite x, opening at the 
anterior edge of the somite, whilst L. complanatus has seven 
pairs, in somites vi to x11, opening at the posterior edge; L. agri- 
cola has two pairs in somites 1x, x, opening posteriorly, and L. 
chlorotica three pairs, in somites 1x, xX, XI, opening anteriorly ; 
there are other variations in this genus, but the spermathecz 
themselves are all simple, globular, sessile sacs. In Typhzxus 
there is only a single pair of spermathecz in somite vil. 
