ABnANCHIAT.E. 141 



FAMILY I. 



ABRANCHIATE SETIGER^E. 



This first family comijriscs the Lumbrici and Naidcs of Linnaeus. 

 LuMBRicus, Lin. 

 The Earth-worms, as they are commonly called, characterized by a 

 long cylindrical body, divided by rugae into a great number" of 

 rings, and by an edentated mouth, necessarily required to be sub- 

 divided. 



Lumbrici s, Cuv. 



Eyes, tontacula, branchiae and cirri, all wanting; a tubercle or visible 

 enlargement, particularly sensible in the nuptial season, serves to 

 attach the two sexes to each other in coitu. The intestine is straight 

 and rugose, and in the anterior part of the boc^ we observe some 

 v.'hitish glands which appear to be concerned in the process of gene- 

 ration. The Lumbrici are certainly hermaphrodites, but it is possi- 

 ble that their coalescing may serve to excite them to the act of self- 

 impregnation. According to the observations of M. Montegre, the 

 ova descend between the intestine and the external enveloije, to the 

 circumference of the rectum, where they are hatched. The young 

 ones issue, living, from the anus. M. Leon Dufour, on the contrary, 

 affirms that their ova resemble those of the Leech. The nervous 

 cord it nothing more than a crowded suite of numerous little 

 ganglia *. 



M. Savigny subdivides them again. 



His Enteriones have four pairs of small setee, eight in all, under 

 each ring. 



Every one knows the Common EarHi-worm — Lmnhricus ter- 

 restris, L. — with a reddish body, that attains nearly a foot in 

 length, and which is composed of upwards of one hundred and 

 twenty rings. The tubercle is near the anterior third. Under 

 the sixteenth ring are two i)ores, the use of which is unknoi^'n. 



This animal traverses the soil in every direction, and swallows 

 a quantity of earth. It also eats roots, ligneous fibres, animal 

 fragments, &c. In the month of June it rises to the surface 

 during the night, to seek for a companion in the process of 

 copulation f. 



* Couf. Montegre, Mem. du Mus., I, p. 242, pi. xii, ar.d Leon Dufour, Aon. des 

 Sc. Nat. V, p. 1 7, and XIV, p. 216, and pi. xii, B, f. 1—4. 



See also the treatise of Morren, De Lv.mbrici Terrcstris Ilisiuria Naturali nee non 

 Anafomica,^Y\\ss., 1829, 4to. 



■f- What is here stated is common to many species, first ascertained by M. Sa- 

 vigny. lie has distinguished twenty of them. See ray Analyse des Travaux dc 

 I'Acad. des Sc, 1821. M. Duges distinguishes six, but does not refer them exactly 

 to those of M. Savigny. 



N. B. MiUlcr and Fala-icius speak of Lumbrici with two setfe to each ring, of 

 ■wliich Savigny proposes to make his genus Ci.itellio, (Lvmbjicus uii,u tus, Fab., 

 Faun., Gra-nl., f. 4), and of others with four and six setre ; but tl.eir descriptions 

 requi) e to be confirmed and completed ere thtir species can be classed. 



