SPERMAXOrUOllES IN EARTHWORMS, 



413 



I have lately examined, and (shall shortly report upon, a collec- 

 tion of terrestrial Oligoclueta from the Philippine Islands, the 

 opportunity of examining which I owe to the kindness of the 

 Director of the Scientific liureau of the Phihppines. I found 

 these structures in two species contained in that collection, one 

 of which I propose to describe as a new species, and the other of 

 which is, as I believe, identical with Pheretima montana. 



In the first- named species, which is very close to that which I 

 call, in my revision of the genus *, P. cingulata, there are four 

 pairs of sperniathecj\i. In all of these, in individuals which I 

 examined for the present purpose, I found spermatophores, but 

 only one or two in each pouch. They are oval bodies with a long 

 spout-like projection, like a pear with a long stalk. It appeared 

 to me, on examining these mounted in glycerine entire, that the 

 prolongation did not open on to the exterior, and that the sperm 

 had therefore no obvious means of escaping from the case which 

 contains it. If my observations are correct, they do not, as will 

 appear shortly, imply anything anomalous ; for the sperm has 

 another way of escape. In the species which I identify with 

 P. montana there is only a single pair of spermathecte. But in 

 each spermatheca was a much larger number of spermatophores. 

 There is an obvious relation here between the total number of 

 spermatophores in the two species. In the former species, more- 

 over, the spermatophores had a longer spout-like projection than 

 in P. montana. 



The accompanying figure (text-fig. 134, p. 414) illustrates a 

 spermatheca of P. montavM, cut open and still containing two of 

 the spermatophores, while two others lie in the vicinity. There 

 are also three other spermatophores in this particular sperma- 

 theca, making a total of seven. In other cases I have noticed the 

 same, or nearly the same, number of these bodies. The figure 

 referred to shows the shape of the spermatophores quite well. 

 They vary slightly in size, being not more than a millimetre in 

 length, and are spherical to oval with a narrow duct-like prolon- 

 gation. The shape, in fact, is quite consistent with the view that 

 they are spermatophores. They do not, however, agree absolutely 

 in their form with those of any Annelid which has been up to 

 the present described. In view of the considerable difierences 

 which spermatophores show in different genera, and families of 

 Oligochaata, this would hardly be expected. On the whole it 

 appeal's to me that they most resemble those of Pareicdrilus, 

 described by myself t and Cognetti de Martiis i. 



The spei'inatophores when viewed with the naked eye or with 

 a hand-lens have a glistening white appearance, which is explained 

 by their minute structure, as will be apparent later. I did not 



* "A Revision of the Genus Annjntns" P. Z. S. 1900, p. 609. 



t " On a new Genus and two new Species of Eartliwovms, &c.," P. Z. S. 19u3, 

 p. 210. 



X "Contribute alia Conoscenza della fecondazione nesli Oligoclieti," Atti Ace. 

 :Sci. Torino, xlv. 1910. 



