NOTES ON ACANTHODRILOID EARTHWORMS. 295 
Acanthodrilus (Mandane) pictus,! but is a richer choco- 
late-brown, with rows of white spots’ (hence the specific name), 
which are more noticeable dorsally than ventrally. 
A narrow dark band (fig. 14), due to absence of spots, extends 
along the whole length of the body in the middle line dorsally 
and ventrally, but becomes rather less marked towards the 
hinder end of the worm, and less noticeable ventrally. This 
dark band occupies the groove above mentioned. 
The spots, which, though white in the spirit specimens, are 
perhaps only “light” in life, are very regularly arranged, 
forming transverse and longitudinal rows; and in each spot 
is embedded a couple of chetz (Pl. XVI, fig. 18). On the 
majority of segments there are twenty-five to twenty-seven of 
these white spots, diminishing in the anterior segments to 
fifteen. 
The median unspotted grooves are about three times as 
wide as the distance between any two white spots of a circle. 
At the hinder end of the body, for about a quarter of the total 
length of the animal, the spots are much closer together, 
giving the appear ance of aseries of white rings. The ventral 
surface is much lighter than the dorsal and lateral surfaces, 
and the spots less noticeable. 
The clitellum, though apparently not quite fully deve- 
loped, is perfectly distinct ; it occupies Somites xiv to xvii 
and part of xviii. It is lighter in colour than the rest of the 
body, both dorsally and ventrally ; and the white spots are 
quite distinct dorsally. As already mentioned, the body in the 
clitellar region is rather constricted. 
The chet are numerous in each segment; they occur 
always in couples, each couple being embedded in a white 
spot (fig. 18). There are usually fifty to fifty-four chet in 
each somite, i.e. twenty-five to twenty-seven couples. They 
decrease in number in the more anterior somites, being forty- 
1 Tkaytoc, transverse. 
2 In a letter to me Mr. Jennings states that “ while living they are lighter 
in colour than ordinary earthworms, and have a peculiar surface marking, 
Except contraction, they seem to undergo little change in spirit.” 
