DESCRIPTIONS OF GENERA AND SPECIES 271 



Branchiura sowerbii, BEDDARD. 



B. sowerbii, BEDDARD, Q. J. M. S. vol. xxxiii (1892), p. 325. 



Definition. Length about 25 mm.; number of segments aJjout 170. Branchiae upon last 

 50-80 segments. Nephrid'm commence in segment XII. Hal. ? (Found in Victoria 

 regia tank in Botanical Society's Gardens, Eegenfs Park, London). 

 This worm like most (? all) other Oligochaeta can reproduce its tail ; I cut off the 

 entire gill-bearing region of a specimen, and in nine days there were four pairs of 

 gills, not on the regenerated tail, which had only one small gill, but on the stump 

 left behind, which was unprovided with gills before amputation. 



Genus VERMICULUS, GOODRICH. 



DEFINITION. Setae entirely uncinate. Clitellum X-XIII. Sperm-duct pore, and 



spermathecal pore single. Sperm-ducts short and wide. 



This is a distinct genus, unless it be really identical with Monopylephorus ; I believe, 

 however, that that genus is, as I have said, on p. 268, the same as STOLC'S Bothrio- 

 neuron ; in this case Vermiculus cannot well be identical with any form known at 

 present. Its most remarkable peculiarity is partially shared with Monopylephorus; 

 that is, the single genital orifice. In the present genus, however, there are spermathecao 

 wanting in the former. Both organs open together by a common median pore. 

 The oviducts are unpaired and open as usual between segments xi/xii. The clitellum 

 is unusually extensive for this family. The spermiducal gland is reduced to a widish 

 cavity evidently formed as an invagination of the exterior of segment xi ; into this 

 open the two sperm-ducts, which are very remarkable in being short and wide with 

 glandular walls ; they are not in the least coiled. 



Vermiculus pilosus, GOODRICH. 

 V. pilosus, GOODRICH, Zool. Anz., 1892, p. 474. 



Definition. Surface of Itoflij clothed with fine hairs. Setae 3-4 per bundle. Hearts in X. 

 Hal. Weymouth. Marine. 



The worm was mot with on the sea shore at Weymouth ; the locality was below 

 high tide mark, and there were found with it other Tubificids and Enchytraeidae ; 

 to the naked eye it is said by its discoverer to be indistinguishable from Heterochaeta 

 costata. The coelomic fluid is filled by a quantity of round corpuscles, which render 

 the worm very opaque when examined microscopically. 



