1902,] NEW SPECIES OF EARTHWORMS. 197 



structure ; but these two species stand apart in this character 

 from the remaining species of the genus Poly tor eittus. 



This condition appears to me to throw some Hght upon the 

 curious structure of the corresj^onding glands in Eiulrilus. In 

 that genus, as has been abundantly shown by others as well as by 

 myself, the spermiducal gland of each side is really formed by the 

 close lateral fusion of two tubes, the fusion being merely a close 

 apposition and i-etention within the same muscular sheath. The 

 lumina are distinct, and the sperm-duct opens into one only of the 

 closely joined tubes. Moreover, one of the tubes is distinctly 

 longer than the othei-. My own recent investigations upon the 

 spermiducal glands in the young Eudrilus seem to show that 

 the division of the spermiducal gland is a secondary matter, for it 

 is single and with but one lumen in the immature worm. It 

 may be, however, that in Polytoreutus an originally double 

 spermiducal gland derived fi-om some EuclriliisAikQ form has split 

 into its two component halves which have acquired independence. 

 The double character of the male orifices and the female repro- 

 ductive organs in Eudrilus, point to its being a more primitive 

 type of Eudrilid than the, in many respects, highly modified 

 Poly tor eutits. In the pi'esent species the minute structui'e of the 

 two parts of the "prostate" is identical, and the sperm-duct 

 becomes continuous with the lumen of the divei'ticulum about 

 one- third way down. 



The female organs closely resemble those of P. kenyaensis. 

 The spermathecal sac is single and median, and has no diverticula 

 of any kind. At the posterior end it is, however, a little different 

 from the spermathecal sac of the last species. The difference lies 

 in the fact that the sac is humped up and bulged out a little way 

 before the external orifice. Viewed laterally, the spermathecal 

 sac is there S -shaped posteriorly. There is no question of diver- 

 ticula. It is simply a dilatation of the sac itself. This region 

 was packed with coagulated matter, which under the microscope 

 was seen to consist entirely of coarse granules. I could find no 

 trace of spermatophores. By the examination of several speci- 

 mens I have convinced myself that the proximal widening of the 

 spermathecal pouch of this species is a constant character, and 

 distinguishes it from its ally P. kenyaensis. The contrast in this 

 particular between the two species is clear from an inspection of the 

 drawings exhibited {of. text-figs. 50, 51, p. 198). Of this particular 

 individual, I detached and made a series of sections of the anteiior 

 end of the spermathecal sac and of the egg-conducting apparatus. 

 Though there were apparently no spermatophores in the posterior 

 portion of the spermathecal sac, they were abundant anteriorly. The 

 oviduct is furnished, as in the last species, with several diverticula 

 lodging sperm. I have noted, howevei-, the additional and inter- 

 esting—if obviously to be expected— fact that free spermatozoa 

 exist also along the course of the oviduct between the diverticula 

 just referred to and the spermathecal sac. Their heads sepm to 

 be invariably in contact with the lining epithelium, the cilia of 



