ZOOLOGY A.ND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 981 



In Lumbricus the investment is continued on to the nerves which 

 arise from the chain. In Arenicola the covering of the nephridia is 

 bo arranged as to call to mind the elements which are found on the 

 inner surface of the lymphatic capillaries of vertebrates. The septa 

 resemble the fenestrated epiploon of a mammal, being, in Arenicola, 

 formed of connective fibres bounding a number of openings ; they are 

 further provided with extremely long smooth muscular fibres, but 

 they are comparatively scanty in number. 



Acanthodrilus Layardi.* — Mr. F. E. Beddard describes a large 

 species of earthworm from New Caledonia, which he calls Acantho- 

 drilus Lai/ardi ; it agrees with the two known New Caledonian 

 species — A. ungulatus and A. obtusus — in having the generative 

 pores on the seventeenth and nineteenth segments, and appears to 

 be in various characters like one or the other. It is most interesting 

 in regard to the very remarkable glands which are irregularly de- 

 veloped in various specimens in connection with certain modified 

 setae; these sausage-shaped glandular bodies appear to be absent 

 from immature specimens. 



Microchseta rappi.t — Mr. F. E. Beddard gives an account of the 

 anatomy and systematic position of the gigantic earthworm of the 

 Cape Colony, and he institutes a new genus for its reception. The 

 clitellum is only developed in the dorsal region, and extends from 

 the tenth to the thirtieth segment ; the vasa deferentia open on the 

 eighteenth, and the ovaries are placed on the anterior wall of the 

 thirteenth segment ; the alimentary canal has no caeca or special 

 glands. 



The nephridia, which open in front of the upper pair of setas on 

 either side, are very remarkable ; their ducts are provided with long 

 oval sacs, and each consists of a tuft of coiled glandular tubes which 

 commuuicates with a wide duct which narrows abrujitly into a short 

 thick tube; near its external orifice the duct gives off a long csecal 

 oval tube. From the twenty-eighth segment backwards the form of 

 the nephridium is a little different. There are no true copulatory 

 pouches. The dorsal vessel consists of two tubes, which are only 

 fused here and there ; the blood capillaries of the very (-mall ovaries 

 are frequently dilated on their course; the terminal apertures of the 

 vasa deferentia are continuous with the testes. 



Studies on Earthworms.]: — Mr. W. B. Benham describes three 

 new genera belonging to the intra-clitelline division of the earth- 

 worms. Urobenus brasiliensis resembles Uroch&eta in the possession 

 of similar intestinal glands and of pyriform sacs, but it differs by the 

 possession of a distinct prostomium ; it is interesting as p -ssessing 

 both the " glandes de Morren " of Urochseta, and the intestinal 

 caeca of Perichseta, but unfortunately the condition of the specimens 

 examined did not allow of a satisfactory examination into their 

 structure ; the typhlosole is a simple fold, and not a cylindrical 



* Proc. Zool. Soc. Lonrl., 1886, pp. 168-75. 



t Trans. Zool. Soc. Loud., xii. (1886) pp. 63-76 (2 pis.). 



X Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci., xxvii. (1886) pp. 77-108 (2 pis.). 



