Dr. F. E. Beddard on the Genus Trichodiilus. 231 



nepliridium may also occupy three segments, but considers 

 that he is here recording an abnormality"^. Furthermore, 

 botii Vejtlovsky and Ben ham find in the genera Phrentothrix 

 and Stylodrilus a similar state of affairs in tlie second pair of 

 nephridia which traverse segments XIII.-XV. or (Piireaiothrix) 

 Xiv.-xxi. I am not quite certain how far I can agiee witli 

 tiiose authors from my examination of my species of Tricho- 

 drilus. The nephridial tubules in segments XII. &c. un- 

 doubtedly come into very close contact at the intersegmental 

 septa ; but I should not like to allege positively that they 

 form part of one nephridium extending through tiiese segments. 

 In Vejdovsky's figure of the two first nepliridia of Phreato- 

 <Ar/.i' f tlie complex nephridia, if they are really formed by 

 fusion of the pairs belonging to tiie several segments through 

 which they pass, are represented as very simple in character; 

 they consist of simply two tubes running side by side. This 

 simplicity is also to be seen in Slylodrilus. In my species, 

 on the otiier hand, tiie coils of the nephridium are much more 

 numerous, and a considerable thickness of nephridial " tissue " 

 is thus to be seen in each segment. I take it that there is 

 here a resemblance to Teleuscolex korotnewi as seen by 

 Michaelsen J. 



As to the repi-oductive organs, none of the specimens 

 appeared to be fully mature § when examined with a hand- 

 lens. The clitellum could not be detected, and the only 

 external sign of maturity was the whitish appearance of the 

 two or three segments in a region just posterior to the male 

 pores, and which seems to be due to ripe ova. I therefore 

 did not preserve many examples for the elucidation of these 

 organs, but studied them in the living condition for the sake 

 of other organs, after which they were not in a very fit state 

 for fixing and iiardening. Fortunately, however, I kept three 

 examples, in all of which the sexual organs were quite well 

 developed, and, indeed, tending [leihaps towards degenera- 

 tion ; for while the tliirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth seg- 

 ments contained a few ripe ova and the sperm-sacs were 

 obvious, the funnels of the sperm-ducts were, perhaps, rather 



* Claparede had already mentioned this fact in a worm erroneously sup- 

 posed to be Luvibncultis variegatics of Grube in his account of tiiat worm 

 (in M(5m. Phys. Geneve, t. c). The genus, however, to which Clapaiede's 

 observatiuns referred is now named Claparedilla (to be merged in Bytho- 

 nomus?). 



t Syst. u. Morph. Olig. Taf. xi. fig. 18. 



X JiuU. Ac. Imp. Sci. St. Tetersb. 1901, p. 169. 



§ According to Ditlevsen (referred to later) Trichoiln'lus al/ohroffum \s 

 fully mature in .July. This ditTorence of season may be a valid distinction 

 from the present species. 



