DESCRIPTIONS OF GENERA AND SPECIES 357 



At present we only know this species from a preliminary description of UDE. The 



funnel of the sperm-duct is described as two to three times as long as broad. The 



perivisceral corpuscles are large and disc-shaped. The nephridia have a small ante- 

 septal part ; the duct arises from the postseptal part, just behind the septum. 



Genus PARENCHYTRAETJS, HESSE. 



DEFINITION. Setae straight. Head-pore between prostomium and buccal segment. 

 Blood colourless ; dorsal vessel arises in XII ; ventral vessel undivided after first 

 segment. No oosophageal glands. Copulatory gland present. 



The genus is to be distinguished by the limited extent of the divided part of the 

 ventral vessel. Only one pair (of the three pairs) of perioesophageal trunks join the 

 divided ventral vessel. 



Parenchytraeus litteratus, HESSE. 

 P. litteratus, HESSE, Z. wiss. Zool., 1893, p. 2. 



Definition. Length, \irnm.; number of segments, 45; prostomium and, buccal segment with 

 papillae. Three pairs of septal g lands (in IF VI). Brain i times as long as broad, 

 concave in front. Spermatheca, without diverticula, communicating with gut by wide orifice. 

 Hob. Naples, seashore. 



The specific name is taken from the sculpturing (like Arabic letters) of the cuticle. 

 The copulatory glands are in iv, v, xiii, xiv. 



Group MEGADRILI. 

 SUPERFAMILY MEGASCOLICIDAE. 



I agree with ROSA in the necessity for uniting together the families Perichaetidae, 

 Acanthodrilidae. and Cryptodrilidae ; but I do not go so far with him as to include 

 also the Eudrilidae. I consider that this family differs as much from either of the 

 three enumerated as do any two families of earthworms. The three which I here unite 

 to form the Megascolicidae are very difficult to separate from each other; the line 

 which separates Dickogaster from the Acanthodrilidae is a very slight one ; Microdriliis, 

 too, is not far removed from Benhamia. The detailed resemblances between these 



