PACIFIC COAST OLIGOCH.ICTA. 129 



pears as a veritable cuticle, though I can find none above the pellucid cells. In 

 fact the whole structure of these organs is very much the same as the sense organs of 

 the epidermis of the body-wall. Jn connection with them I may point out the simi- 

 larity of structure of these organs with those described below in Acanthodiibis VasUti^ 

 in the vicinity of the prostates; and with those in the tubercula pubertatis of Sparga- 

 nophilus Srnithi and tepicensiif, in all of which I find the same sense cells. 



It remains to add that this pouch-like area of sense cells and glandular cells has 

 previously been observed by both Michaelsen and Horst and designated as a diver- 

 ticulum ot the buccal cavity, but the true nature of the pouch as a sense-area has, I 

 believe, not been previously recognized. B. Bo/nvi, malayana and probably most, if 

 not all other, Benhamias possess this organ of the buccal cavity. 



Septa. These are generally very thin, only two being thicker than the rest, 

 viz.: xii-xiii and xiii-xiv. These septa do not strictly correspond with the inter- 

 segmental grooves, but are affixed much further back in the somites. 



Pharyngeal and septal glands. The usual supra-pharyngeal glands are present. 

 They are evidently unicellular and arranged ribbon-like as will be directly described 

 below. The septal glands are found in ix, x and xi, are very narrow and onl}^ one cell 

 thick in the row as the former. These glandular masses are much thicker in B. 

 palmicola, but not any longer. 



Intestine. In all the specimens which I could examine I found the pharyngeal 

 parts strongly everted and protruded to such an extent that it formed the lip or front 

 margin of the body, taking the usual place of prostomium proper. I cannot a.scribe 

 this entirely to a simple protrusion of the pharynx, but believe that this part is actu- 

 ally situated much more forward than in other species, as I found it to be the case in 

 every specimen observed. The pharynx was found actually on the outside of the body 

 (figs. 15, 16, 17, 18). The real pharynx, of course, is the zone in which open the 

 supra-pharyngeal glands. The wall of this part is in our present species hardly 

 thicker than those of the buccal cavity and the oesophagus, but it contains the usual 

 arrangement of narrow epithelial cells, between which penetrate the tine ducts from 

 the supra-pharyngeal glands. The ends or discharge pockets of these glands are 

 almost globular or rounded flask-like (fig. 18). The supra-pharyngeal glands are 

 arranged as ribbons, running singly along muscular strands. They differ from similar 

 glands in Pontodrilus, Phoenicodrilus, Ocnerodrilus etc., by their arrangement in 

 single rows, and here and there the duct of a single glandular cell may be followed 

 clear to the discharge pocket (fig. 16). These glands appear to con.sist of a single 

 cell with a long duct, just as the corresponding glands in Euchytrseus, described by 

 Hesse. But to draw the conclusion from this fact, that all the |)haryngeal and septal 

 glands are unicellular is, I think, premature. In Pontodrilus, at least, there 

 may be seen plainly numerous nuclei on the gland ducts, which, of course, indi- 

 cates that we here have a fusion of several cells. The pharyngeal glands in that 

 genus do not show this ribbon-like arrangement as in Benhamia. I could, however, 

 see that some of the smaller glands nearest the pharynx consisted of only one cell, 

 but the majority, and all the large glands, consisted of several cells, the respective 



