696 MR. F. E. BEDDARD ON NEW [DcC. 20, 



probably, and Allnrus certainly, have the male pores situated very 

 far forwards, nearly as far forwards as in Moniligaster ; this he 

 holds renders it unnecessary to lay any particular stress upon the 

 forward position of the pores in question, in Moniligaster, as an 

 indication of affinity with the lower Oligochaeta. Granting this 

 for the moment, it seems a little unfair that Rosa should use precisely 

 the same character as an indication of affinity with the Lumbricidae, 

 especially with the two genera just mentioned. On p. 386 of his 

 memoir, however, he states, as a feature of resemblance between 

 Moniligaster and these genera, the fact that in both the male pores 

 are in front of the oviducai pores. 



As to the forward position of the clitellum in Moniligaster, Rosa 

 quotes the instance of Buchholzia appendiculala, where the organs 

 of the body are two segments in front of the usual position which 

 they occupy in allied species. I do not think from what we now 

 know that it will prove to be the case that in any species of Monili- 

 gaster the clitellum is so far back as segments xii.-xv., a position 

 which, as Rosa justly points out, is after all not so very different 

 from what we find in other undoubted Earthworms. The new facts 

 contained in the present paper do not furnish any material for a 

 renewed discussion as to what group of Earthworms comes nearest 

 to the Moniligastridae : the only pronounced feature in which they 

 resemble any Earthworms is the presence of several gizzards lying 

 at the end of the oesophagus ; but we now know that this character 

 is found in several genera belonging to at any rate three families, 

 viz., Pleionognsler, Bilimla, and the three Eudrilids ffgperiodrilus, 

 Reliodrilus, and Libyodrilus. This character, therefore, must be 

 neglected as a mark of affinity. 



V. Family Eudrilids. 

 14. Eudriloides durbanensis. 



The division of the Eudrilidae into genera requires some further 

 consideration ; we are at present but imperfectly acquainted with a 

 large proportion of the many forms recently described from tropical 

 Africa by Dr. Michaelsen ; and as there are doubtless a large number 

 of forms awaiting discovery, it is also premature to attempt any 

 systematic revision of the family. I therefore refer provisionally the 

 species, which I describe in the present paper, to the genus Eudri- 

 loides, without pretending that it may not ultimately be transferred to 

 some other genus ; I give at the end of the description my reasons 

 for this course. 



The worms which I describe here were obtained from Kew 

 Gardens ; they had reached those gardens from Durban, Natal ; I 

 preserved them in alcohol after killing them in weak spirit. There 

 were five specimens, of which two were studied by longitudinal 

 sections, the others examined in glycerine. The species is a small 

 one ; the length is about two inches by a breadth of not more than 

 two millimetres ; the worms are therefore long and slender. During 

 life the colour was red — a colour owing, of course, to the absence of 



