202 Miscellaneous. 
That peculiar organ of the female, the annulus, proves to be an 
essential secondary sexual character. The male passes the sperm 
into the cavity of the annulus of the female, and does not distribute 
it elsewhere. The annulus, then, serves as a sperm-receptacle, and 
thus corresponds to the similarly situated organ described by 
Bumpus as a sperm-receptacle in the lobster, Homarus americanus. 
The well-known hooks on the ischiopodites of the third walking-legs 
of the male serve to hold the two animals firmly together, and are 
necessary secondary sexual organs. They are hooked over the firm 
ridges on the basipodites of the fourth legs of the female. 
The special instincts and actions of the male and female are 
complex, and are very accurately interadjusted to secure the depo- 
sition of sperm in the annulus. The male, at a definite stage in 
the process of conjugation, passes either the right or the left fifth 
walking-leg across below his thorax in such a way as to support and 
guide the first and second pleopods, or intromittent apparatus, and 
thus secure effective function. 
In the only case in which eggs were laid the sperm was removed 
from the annulus by the female soon after laying; the eggs, how- 
ever, did not develop; various conditions were abnormal.—Johns 
Hopkins University Circulars, vol. xiv. no. 119, p. 74. 
The Breeding-habits of the Earthworms. By EK. A, ANDREWS. 
The only detailed and accurate account of the complex phenomena 
of mutual conjugation in earthworms is that given by Hering for 
the European Lumbricus terrestris. 
In studying the much smaller Allolobophora fetida I find that it 
conjugates beneath the surface, and cannot therefore be directly 
observed. 
Momentary immersion in boiling corrosive sublimate or boiling 
water followed by Perenyi’s liquid preserves the conjugating indi- 
viduals in the natural position, so that they may be studied by 
dissection and by the serial section method. 
This study shows that the process is essentially as in Lumbricus. 
The union is, however, a much firmer and more intimate one, each 
individual being almost completely enveloped by the clitellum of the 
other, and firmly fastened to it by a stout enveloping case of mucus. 
An important anatomical difference—the fact that the sperm- 
receptacles of Allolobophora open on to the dorsal surface, and not 
on to the ventral surface as they do in Lumbricus—necessitates a 
change in our conception of the method of sperm-transfer. The 
peculiar muscular contractions of the clitellum described by Hering 
are obviously insufficient to explain the filling of these dorsal sperm- 
receptacles, and we must apparently suppose there is some aspirating 
action of the receptacles involved in the process. 
Light is also thrown upon the question of the origin of the so- 
called spermatophores, or “ penes” of the older writers. 
The sections show that they are formed opposite the openings of 
the vasa deferentia. Each is a secretion of skin-glands poured out 
from the lips of the vas deferens, and adhering firmly to the body of 
