1900..] OF THE GENUS BENHAMIA. 1C9 



not entirely agree with my observations. The very greatest care 

 has often to be exercised in defining species from these very 

 generally present organs of adhesion, which are often when dis- 

 creetly used of great value in distinguishing jthe species of many 

 genera. These papillae, however, are of more than one kind. In 

 the present species they are, as Dr. Beuham has indicated and 

 illustrated, of the nature of pits from the bottom of which a 

 papilla may protrude. They resemble so far the genital papilla? of 

 the Perichceta, P. novae britannice \ But they are extraordinarily 

 numerous — much more numerous in the specimen of Benhamia 

 which I have studied thau in that which forms the subject of 

 Dr. Benham's paper. The accompanying drawing (fig. 1, p. 168) 

 will illustrate their distribution on the surface of the body and save a 

 full description. It will be seen from that drawing that they are 

 as numerous in the region of the spermathecal apertures as in the 

 neighbourhood of the male orifices. In Dr. Benham's specimen 

 there were by no means so many of these sucker-like organs 

 anteriorly as posteriorly. The orifices were quite small, and the 

 fact that each was surrounded by a white circumference gave to 

 them an exceedingly conspicuous appearauce. In many cases they 

 were crowded together upon a single segment. Elsewhere there 

 were fewer on a single segment. I noticed no glands in the 

 interior of the body which correspond to them. In this they 

 differ from the (physiologically '?) similar papilla? of some other 

 earthworms. 



I divide what I have to say upon the internal organs of this 

 species into three heads : — 



(1) Calciferous Glands. — These glands, always fouud in the 

 genus Benhamia, are present to the number of three pairs and, 

 as is usual with the genus, lie in segments xv, xvi, & xvn. 

 The glands are much lobulated, as is shown in the figure which I 

 exhibit (fig. 2, p. 170) ; the furrows are very deep, and the appear- 

 ance, as Dr. Benham has remarked, is by no means unlike that of a 

 well-convoluted mammalian brain. The middle pair, i. e, those 

 occupying segment xvi, are the largest of the three ; the anterior 

 pair are the smallest. An important anatomical fact respecting 

 these calciferous glands is their opening into the oesophagus by 

 a single orifice on each side, which is common to all three glands. 

 The large size of the worm permitted this fact to be ascertained 

 by simple dissection without any doubt ; when the oesophagus was 

 slit open the oritice was not only plainly visible, but the secretion 

 of the glands in the form of a brownish powder was seen to 

 escape like a cloud into the alimentary tube by one orifice only. 

 The slightest pressure produced this result. The single orifice 

 belonged to the anterior gland ; the two following glands 

 apparently communicated with that and with each other. 

 Dr. Benham states of the calciferous glands that " each is . . . 

 connected to the oesophagus by a short, narrow, but distinct duct." 



1 " On a Collection of Earthworms, &c," Willey's Zool. Eesults, Cambridge, 

 1S99. 



