ABRANCHIATJi. 
141 
FAMILY I. 
ABRANCHIATiE SETIGER^. 
This first family comijrises the Lumbrici aiul Naides of Linnaeus. 
Ltmbricus, Lin. 
The Earth-worms, as they are commonly called, characterized by a 
long cylindrical body, divided by ruga* into a great number of 
rings, and by an edentated mouth, necessarily required to be sub- 
divided. 
LuMBRicrs, Cnv. 
Eyes, tentacula, braiichia? 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 body we observe some 
whitish 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 envelope, to the 
circumference of the rectum, where they are hatched. I'he 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. 
H is Enteriones have four pairs of small settle, eight in all, under 
each ring. 
Every one knows the Common Earth-worm — Lnmhricu<; ter- 
restris, L. — Avith a reddish body, that attains nearly a foot in 
length, and which is composed of upAvards of one hundred and 
tAventy rings. The tubercle is near the anterior third. Under 
the sixteenth ring are tAVO pores, the use of Avhicli is unknoAj'n. 
This animal traA^erses the soil in eA^ery direction, and sAA^allows 
a qtiantity 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 . 
* Coiif. Montegre, Mem. dix Mus., I, p. 242, pi. xii, and Leon Dufour, Ann. des 
Sc. Nat. V, p. 17, and XIV, p. 216, and pi. xii, B, f. 1 — 4. 
See also the treatise of Morren, De Lumbrici Terrestris Historia Naturali nec non 
Anff/oau’co, Bruss., 1829, 4to. 
•f- What is here stated is common to many species, first ascertained by M. Sa- 
viguy. He has distinguished twenty of them. See my Analyse des Travaux de 
I’Acad. des Sc., 1821. M. Duges distinguishes six, but does not refer them exactly 
to those of M. Savigny. 
N. B. Miiller and Fabricius speak of Lumbrici with two set® to each ling, of 
which Savigny proposes to make his genus Clitellio, (LumhHcus mint tits, Fab., 
Faun., Gra-nl., f. 4), and of others with four and six set® ; but their disciiptions 
require to be confirmed and completed ere their species can be classed. 
