1902.] ON THE FEMALE ORGANS OF EUBRILUS. 89 



3. A Note upon ibe Gronad Ducts and Nephridia of Earth- 

 worms o£ the Genus Eudrilns. By B'rank E. Beudard 

 M.A., F.R.S., Vice-Secretarj an! Prosector o£ the 

 Society. 



[Received April 14, 1902.] 

 (Text-figures 17-20.) 



(1) Oviduct. 



Although a considerable number of memoiis have been published 

 which deal entirely oi- in pai't with the female reproductive 

 oi'gans of Eudrihts, I am able in the present communication 

 to add some new facts to what has been already ascertained. 

 The original describer of the genus and of the organs in question 

 was Perrier, whose account and figures ai'e paitly coriect, though 

 he mistook for the ovary the homologue of the leceptaculum 

 ovorum, or egg-sac as it is simpler to call this cavity which lodges 

 the developing o-\'a\ Later the sti-ucture of these organs was 

 more correctly desciibed by myself, the continuity of the sac 

 containing iij)e and developing ova with the undoubted oviduct 

 being demonstrated ; by Peiiier the sac had been figured as 

 attached to the wall of the spermathecal sac just at the point 

 where the oviduct, termed by him " un tube . . entortille," and 

 not identified as the oviduct, opens '\ This was confirmed later 

 by Dr. Horst, who added some details ^. Neither Dr. Hoi'st nor 

 I saw the real ovaries in any of the specimens which we examined. 

 Shortly aftei' I found in the xiiith segment of some examples of 

 the genus fi'om British Guiana, a jjair of cellular bodies lying in 

 the usual position that is occupied by ovaiies, and w]:"apj)ed in a 

 small sac which I found to ojjen into the duct of the spermathecal 

 sac"". Dr. Horst's investigations finally settled the matter, and 

 proved conclusively that the cellular bodies in the xiith segment 

 of Eibdrilus are ovaiies \ I thought, however, that this genus 

 possessed two pairs of ovaries, those of the xiiith segment, and a 

 pair in the xivth which have become involved in the egg-sac. 

 This view is also taken by Eisen, who has made the latest con- 

 tribution to tlie subject, and whose figure of the female reproductive 

 system in this annelid is the best with which I am acquainted ". 



I believe that we aie now, owing to these vaiious memoirs, in 

 possession of accurate information concerning the organs in 

 question in the sexually mature Eudrilus. But there is not at 

 present any certainty as to the coiiespondence of the sevei-al 

 parts of the complicated apparatus with corresponding I'egions in 

 the equally complicated female organs of the other Eudrilidfe. 



1 Nouv. Arch, du Museum, viii. (1872) p. 71. 



2 Zool. Auzeig. 1886, no. 224 ; Proc. Roy. Soc. Edin. xiii. (1885-86) p. 672. 

 "* Notes from the Leyden Museum, ix. p. 247. 



■* Zool. Auzeig. 1888, no. 293 ; P. Z. S. 1887, p. 372. 



5 Mem. Soc. Zool. France, iii. (1890) p. 223. 



6 Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci. ii. (3) 1900, p. 135. 



