ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MTCUOSCOPY, ETC. 999 



Coloration of the Anterior Segments of the Maldanidse.* — Prof. 

 A. Harker, while studying the circulation and resiDiration of Annelids at 

 Naples, was especially interested in the Maldanidse, from their partially 

 tuhicolous hahit, and the brilliant coloration of their anterior segments. 

 The bands of colour usually ornament the anterior segments, beginning 

 with the second or third, and continuing to the ninth ; but the dis- 

 tribution of the coloured bands difiers widely in the different species. 

 The colour in living or freshly killed specimens is of a rich rose- 

 madder colour, shading off in each segment to a brighter rose-pink 

 hue. Quatrefages attributed a physiological value to these coloured 

 bands, describing them as being connected with the respiratory 

 function. In connection with the whole subject of cutaneous re- 

 spiration in Annelids, it appeared important to settle this question, 

 and the author made sections of the anterior segments in the Mal- 

 danidas, and found the colour to be due to a special pigment, whose 

 behaviour under various reagents he described. On the other hand, 

 the author had studied the blood-vessels and their distribution in the 

 living Chtetopod, and is satisfied that it extends equally in those 

 portions of the cuticle which are nncoloured as in those which are. 

 The coloured bands do not appear, therefore, to be in any way 

 connected with the function of respiration. 



Nephridia of a new species of Earthworm.| — Mr. F. E. Beddard 

 describes the peculiar disposition of the " segmental organs " in a 

 new species of earthworm belonging to Perrier's genus Acanthodrilus. 

 The eight setae of each segment form eight longitudinal rows, 

 separated by nearly equal intervals, and with each seta a nephridium 

 is associated. The dorsal nephridia are quite distinct, those belonging 

 to the ventral pair of setae adhere continuously to the intersegmental 

 septum. A nephridium passes up close to each seta, imbedded in the 

 surrounding loose connective tissue ; the tube passes out between the 

 longitudinal and circular muscular coat, and opens by a minute 

 orifice readily detected by the alteration in the character of the 

 epidermis, by the disappearance of the large, oval, glandular cells, and 

 by the close packing and inbending of the narrow, columnar cells. 

 The coiled tubule of the nephridium is lined by uniform rows of 

 cells ; only the extreme distal end differs from the rest in being 

 surrounded by a flattened epithelium of very small cells and is in 

 all probability lined by a continuation of the external cuticle. Eisig's 

 discovery in certain Capitellidse of numerous pairs of nephridia in 

 each segment, has thus been extended to the Oligochseta. 



The homology between nephridial and genital ducts maintained 

 in some cases by Claparode, and applied, in spite of Claparede's 

 denial, by Lankester to the earthworms, in regard to whicli he suggested 

 that the copulatory and genital ducts were derived from a second 

 dorsal series of nephridia which had disappeared except in the genital 

 segments, has been criticized by Perrier though apparently corrobo- 

 rated by the anatomical facts revealed by his own investigation of 



* Nature, xxxii. (188.5) p. 564. (Paper read before the British Associatii)n.) 

 t I'roc. Roy. Soc, xxxviii. (1885) pp. 459-64. 



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