ZOOLOaY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 45 



Both margins of the supra-oesophageal ganglion are deeply 

 emarginated ; a distinct infra-oesophageal ganglion cannot be clearly- 

 made out. The first two ventral ganglia give off only two, but the 

 rest give off three, pairs of nerves. 



The sexes are united in the same individual, and the author's 

 account of the male organs is, from a general point of view, extremely 

 interesting, inasmuch as we have in Ocnerodrilus that permanent dis- 

 position of the testes which becomes so remarkably obscured in the 

 earthworm. There are two pairs of testes, constantly minute in size ; 

 one pair is situated in the eighth segment, and is attached to the sep- 

 tum that separates that segment from the ninth ; the second pair is 

 attached to the anterior septum of the tenth segment. The largest 

 spermatozoa are found nearest to the upper margin of the lobes ; the 

 smallest resemble the ovarian cells, and are found close to the dis- 

 sepiment. The efferent ducts have no prostate glands, and further, 

 also differ from those of other Lumbriculidae by opening at the same 

 segment and into the same pore as the receptaculum seminis ; the pore 

 is found in the sixteenth segment. The ducts are apparently, but not 

 really, fused together. The ovaries are attached to the front face of 

 the dissepiment which separates the eleventh and twelfth segments. 

 No eggs are ever found floating in the body-cavity ; the oviducts open 

 on either side of the ventral line, and in the middle of the thirteenth 

 segment. The receptaculum seminis is enormous, and extends back- 

 wards from the sixteenth as far as the twenty-fifth segment, or even 

 further ; it forms a long, narrow, thick- walled bag. No cloaca of any 

 kind is formed at the genital orifice. 



0. occidentalis is about 20 mm. long and 2 mm. wide ; its colour 

 is compared to that of raw meat. It is, unlike Lumhriculus or BJiyn- 

 chelmis, exceedingly slow in its movements. It was found in Fresno 

 County, California, and is said to be mature in the latter part of 

 October. 



Segmental Organs of EcMurida.* — These interesting structures 

 are discussed by Dr. E. v. Drasche, who points out that the demi- 

 canalicular coiled spiral folds found by Greef in Thalassema Mcebii, 

 may be referred (as the examination of a new species of Thalassema 

 from the Island of Bourbon has showu him) to the funnel of EcJiiurus 

 Pallasii, the lateral margins of which are produced into spirally coiled 

 grooves. This modification of the funnel has also been detected by 

 the author in a new Japanese species of the genus Echiurus {E. uni- 

 cinctus). The grooves in question lead to the cleft of the funnel, 

 shortly behind the edge of which there commences a narrow canal, 

 which leads into the segmental tube. 



Northern Gephyrea.j — D. C. Danielssen and J. Keren describe 

 four new genera (Hamingia, Saccosoma, Stephanostoma, and Epitheto- 

 soma) and seven new species of Gephyrea obtained by the Norwegian 

 North-Sea Expedition. A new family — Epithetosomatidas — is pro- 



* Zool. Anzeig., iii (1880) pp. 517-19. 



t Nyt Magazin f. Naturvid., 1880, pp. 44-6G. See Ann. and Mag. Nat. 

 Hist., vi. (1880) pp. 462-5. 



