208 MR. F. E. BEDDAEU ON THE OLIGOCH^TE [Mar. 6, 



subfamily of the Eudriliclae {Parexidrilacea)^ ^ extend from segment 

 vi. to xii. inclusive. 



The septa which lie between segments v./xii. are very thick ; 

 those which divide the two following segments are moderately 

 thick and are at least distinguishable by their size from those 

 which follow. It is noteworthy that the septa which enclose 

 segment xiii. approach each other very closely in the middle 

 of the body in immature examples which I have examined in 

 o-lycerine after dividing them longitudinally. This is not infre- 

 quent in the ovarian segment of earthworms. 



Although the female reproductive organs were more or less 

 fully developed in tAvo out of the five examples which I studied of 

 this species, 1 am not able to give a complete account of their 

 structure. There is, however, a median spermathecal sac which 

 opens upon the thirteenth segment to the exterior. This is 

 connected with an egg- conducting apparatus, as in other species of 

 the genus. 



It is largely the asymmetry of the female generative apparatus 

 which leads me to refer the present species to the genus 

 Stibhlmannia ; though it is, of course, not this feature alone 

 which has influenced me. There are obviously other points 

 of similai'ity. In his account of both Stuhlmannia variahilis and 

 S. gracilis Michaelsen has not noticed the asymmetry f. In 

 examples of a species which I regarded as belonging to that 

 species t I commented upon the fact that the receptaculum 

 ovorum of one side of the body was rudimentary. In a more 

 recent and more exhaustive account of the female reproductive 

 system of the genus, and as I thought of the same species, viz. 

 aS'. variahilis, I described at length § the same series of facts. 

 Still later I found || in a third species of the genus, viz. S. onichael- 

 se7ii, the same asymmetry. 



There is some discrepancy in the three accounts given by 

 me of the asymmetry which possibly are not real discrepancies. 

 I have described in some cases the left and in others the right 

 side of the apparatus as partly rudimentary. In the species 

 which forms the subject of the present communication there is no 

 doubt that it is the light side which is fully developed and the 

 left receptaculum ovorum which is rudimentary. This agi'ees 

 v/ith my account of Stuhlmannia michaelseni and with my earlier 

 statement as to the matter contained in the "■ Monograph." If 

 there is an error I am not now able to rectify it. But I can say 

 positively that in Stuhlmaimia inermis I found the receptacidum 

 to be rudimentary upon the left side of the body. The median 

 spermathecal sac gives off a branch upon each side which passes 



* Becldavd, Quart. Jouru. Micr. Sci. -vol. sxxvi., n. s. 



t " JBescbreibung der von Ilerr Dr. Fr. Stulilmaini auf Sansibar und dem gegen- 

 iiberliegenden Festbmde gesammelten Terricolen," Jahrb. Hamb. wiss. Anst. ix. (1891), ' 

 and " Die Kegenwiirmer Ost-Afrikas," in Deutscb Ost-Afril;a, Bd. iv. 



"X A Monograpb oftbe Order 01igocba;ta (Oxford, 1895). 



§ " On some Earthworms from British East Africa," P. Z. S. 1901, vol. i. p. 351. 



11 " On a new Genus and Two new Species, &c.," P. Z. S. 1903, vol. i. p. 212. 



