172 MR. ¥F. E. BEDDARD ON A LARGE EARTHWORM. [Mar. 16, 
Generative System.—In the 12th segment are a pair of glands 
attached firmly to the mesentery which separates this segment from 
the one anterior to it; in two specimens these glands were paired, 
while in a third only the left-hand one of the two was present; in 
one specimen these glands have a racemose structure, and although 
a microscopic examination did not reveal any structure, I have 
little doubt that these glands are testes. Out of the seven examples 
at my disposal one specimen possessed a similar pair of glands in 
the 11th segment in addition to those found in the 12th segment ; 
in all the remaining specimens save one, which was small and 
immature, the 10th segment (that which follows the segment con- 
taining the posterior pair of spermathecz) has a pair of glandular- 
looking bodies which are very similar in general appearance to the 
structures which I have regarded as the testes; they are attached, 
however, to the posterior wall of their segment, which, as in other 
Earthworms, is not separated by a mesentery from the 9th segment; 
these two segments, which are thus fused, contain the gizzard. 
The fact that these glands are attached to the posterior and not 
to the anterior wall of their segment is perhaps against the view 
that they represent an anterior pair of testes; at the same time it 
happens that the segment in which they occur has no anterior wall, 
being fused with the preceding 9th segment; these glands were 
not present in the only specimen that had two pairs of testes. In 
Acanthodrilus capensis’ there are three pairs of testes situated in 
segments 10, 11, and 12; but out of a number of examples that 
I dissected only one had the three pairs developed. There is therefore 
nothing unusual in supposing that the present species, like 4. capensis, 
has three pairs of testes, although all the other species that are known 
appear to have only two pairs. On the other hand, the gland in 
segment 10 is very similar to a curious structure which exists in 4. 
capensis ina similar position, 7. e. attached to the posterior wall of the 
segment. In this species, however, the gizzard happens to be placed 
in front of the copulatory pouches, and not in the segment which 
contains them; so that the two pairs of pouches are separated from 
each other and from the following segments by fully developed 
mesenteries, which, as already stated, is not the case with the species 
that forms the subject of the present communication ; in this species 
the gizzard lies in the 9th and 10th segments. If, however, these 
structures correspond to those recorded by me in A. capensis, it is 
no explanation of their nature ; in neither case is their function at all 
evident. 
The vasa deferentia were not visible. Each of the four male genital 
apertures are furnished with a long sac containing a number of 
penial sete which open on to the exterior in common with the duct 
of along coiled prostate gland, which appears to be similar in structure 
to the prostates of A. obtusus*; on the other hand, the characters 
1 Proc. Roy. Phys. Soe. loc. cit. p. 3875. I have written 11, 12, and 13 in 
error ; the oyaries,as I have been able to assure myself by a subsequent examin- 
ation, are in segment 13, and so presumably the testes are in the three segments 
anterior to that which contains the ovaries, viz. in segments 10, 11, 12. 
2 Perrier, loc, cit. p. 88. 
