2JO JORDAN. [Vol. V. 



lated to secretion during the " Liebesspiel," but I do not care 

 to enter at present into a full consideration of that question. 



In Diemyctylus the pointed spine above described sometimes 

 plays an important part in the entrance of the spermatozoa. I 

 have in several cases, in females watched from below, seen the 

 tip of the spine covered with spermatozoa actually pass directly 

 between the closed cloacal lips. The elastic spine, easily bent 

 down by the passage of the female over it, and as easily spring- 

 ing up when the entrance to the cloaca is reached, functioning 

 thus as a sort of penis, would seem admirably adapted for effect- 

 ing the entrance of the spermatozoa, but I do not think that 

 the spermatozoa obtain an entrance only in this way. The 

 springing up of the spine is apparently of rather infrequent 

 occurrence, and I am constrained to think that this is not the 

 sole and invariable mode of entrance. It much more frequently 

 happens that the cloacal lips and the surrounding skin are 

 thickly smeared with spermatozoa, and I am inclined to believe 

 that, as in the European form, the spermatozoa then find their 

 way to the " Samentaschen " by virtue of their own activity. 



Clark University, Worcester, Mass., 

 June, 1891. 



