464 On a new African Earthworm. 



concerned in the secretion of the substance which forms the 

 wall of the upper capsule ; but whether any of this substance 

 is derived from the sperm iducal glands of another worm 

 during copulation, appears to me still open to question. 



In the spermatheca which I have examined by means of 

 serial sections, the terminal chamber contained two or three 

 bodies of somewhat irregular shape, with thick, stratified, 

 strongly eosinophilous walls, and with their cavities filled with 

 more or less hard granular matter. In fact, there can be no 

 doubt that these bodies correspond exactly with the part of the 

 fully-formed spermatophore which I have called the "upper 

 capsule/' It is not easy, however, to account for the mass 

 of granular matter within the capsule. It appears to me not 

 unlikely that this, if anything, is what is derived from the 

 spermiducal glands, and that it is the substance which acts 

 as a stimulus to the epithelial cells of the spermatheca, and 

 causes them to throw out their secretion and so surround 

 it with the successive layers of matter which form the 

 capsule. This, however, is merely suggested as a possibility ; 

 it is not incompatible with the appearance of the granules or 

 globules of secretion seen in the cells of the spermiducal 

 gland and the granular residual matter also found in the 

 terminal chamber of the spermatheca. In any case, it seems 

 doubtful whether either the granular mass or the capsule 

 can be derived from broken-down epithelial cells of the 

 spermatheca, since I have been unable to find any cells, 

 recognizable as such, which had wandered off into the cavity 

 of the sac. 



Probably the formation of the capsule is not completed 

 until it has been transferred from the terminal chamber into 

 the middle chamber of the spermatheca. Here, it may be 

 supposed, the yellow stratified matter is formed, which lines 

 the trumpet-shaped tube, and the lower end of the capsule 

 is fused with this. How the spermatozoa are introduced 

 into the apparatus is very doubtful. It may be that just 

 before the fusion of the two portions a contraction of the 

 sperm-diverticula, or of one of them, takes place, by means 

 of the mui-cles of their walls, and the sperm is driven down 

 the duct and into the required position near the mouth of 

 the trumpet-shaped tube, whence it finds its way into the 

 spermatophore. 



Finally, the mass of homogeneous substance blocking the 

 outer end of the spermathecal duct has to be accounted for. 

 It seems to me probable, though by no means certain, that 

 this is a plug formed by the coagulation of some secretion, 

 after the act of copulation is complete. Beddard has 



