THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



[SIXTH SERIES.] 



No. 6. JUNE 1888. 



LII. — On the Reproductive Organs of Phveoiyctes. By 

 Frank E. Beddard, M.A., Prosector to the Zoological 

 Society of London. 



[Plate XXIII.] 



Among a number of earthworms which I have recently 

 received from New Zealand was a single example of a small 

 slender worm, whicli I refer, with some doubt, to the genus 

 Phreoryctes. The specimen was in a very fair state of pre- 

 servation, and I have therefore been able to investigate 

 its structure by means of sections. The anterior region 

 of the body, comprising the first twenty segments, was cut 

 into a series of longitudinal sections ; the posterior region was 

 studied by means of transverse sections. Mr. W. Smith, of 

 Ashburton^ New Zealand, to whose kindness I am indebted 

 for the worm, states that it was found in marshy soil coiled 

 up with a number of others into a ball ; its colour during life 

 was a bright red. It is about 2 inches in length and very 

 slender ; its general proportions in fact agree very closely with 

 Vejdovsky's figure of Stylodrilus (' System und Morphologic 

 der Oligochaeten,' Taf. xi. fig. 9 a) ; its form is not nearly so 

 elongated as that of either of the two species of Phreoryctes at 

 present known. 



Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 6. Vol. i. 27 



