436 FRANK E. BEDDARD. 
diverticula alone contain spermatozoa, while Spencer (87, p. 35), 
has stated that in Megascolides australis “ the sperma- 
zoa . . . . were confined to the diverticulum.” Acan- 
thodrilus Rose conforms to the same rule, which there is 
now some reason for regarding as of general application. It 
seems probable, therefore, that the diverticula, which are so 
usually met with in exotic Harthworms, do not merely serve 
the purpose of increasing the area for the storage of sperma- 
tozoa received from another worm during copulation. 
In all these instances observed by myself the spermathecz 
themselves contained a granular coagulum, which appears to be 
a product of the glandular epithelium lining the pouch; in 
Megascolides australis the spermatheca, according to 
Spencer (35), is filled with “a fluid containing granules and 
masses of nucleate corpuscles.”' Corresponding to the widely 
different part taken by the spermatheca and diverticula in the 
phenomena of reproduction, there appears to be generally 
some difference in minute structure. I have already pointed 
out this in Acanthodrilus dissimilis (1). Horst (24) and 
Spencer (37) have done the same in A. ungulatus and in 
Megascolides australis respectively. In Acanthodrilus 
georgianus the difference in the minute structure of the 
spermatheca and of its diverticula is not only apparent in the 
sexually mature worm, but also in immature specimens in 
which the spermathece are but little developed. Fig. 27 
represents a transverse section through the spermatheca and 
through the diverticulum of a small unripe individual. Both 
spermatheca and diverticulum are enveloped in a moderately 
thick coat of nucleated tissue, derived in all probability, as Bergh 
(18) has pointed out in the case of Lumbricus, from the peri- 
toneum, and destined to form not only the peritoneal sheath 
but the muscular tissue of the spermatheca; there does not 
appear to bein Acanthodrilus any more than in Lumbricus 
1 Goehlich has recently stated (28) that in Lumbricus in the cold 
season the spermathece contain numerous “ blood-corpuscles,” the function 
of which is to devour the spermatozoa that have been left over after the 
processes of fertilization have ended. 
