1901.] ANNELID or THE GENUS ALMA. 219 



miles away from the locality which produced A. millsoni, there is 

 2k 2-)rima facie possibility of its being distinct from that form. 



The general aspect is illustrated in Wxq accompanying figure (text- 

 fig. 59, A), and is like that of other species of Alma. The " penial 

 processes" are not especially long, measuring as they do about 

 10 mm. as against a total body-length of 125 mm. These measure- 

 ments are in all probability fairly accurate ; for, though the worms 

 were not in a very excellent state of preservation, they were, as it 

 appeared to me, not unduly softened and presented no appearances 

 of having been pulled out in the course of preparation or of sub- 

 sequent handling. The square shape of the body both in front of 

 the clitellum and posteriorly was quite well shown, a condition so 

 characteristic of this genus, as of some others (e. g. AUurus, Ghf- 

 phidvilus) which are at least sometimes aquatic in habit. To the 

 corners of the quadrangular contour corresponded the pairs of setae 

 which in the present worm are not closely applied to each other. 

 Throughout the body each seta is at some little distance from its 

 fellow of the couple ; and this arrangement persists unaltered to 

 the end of the body, which is the case in A. millsoni, but not in 

 any other of the remaining three species of the genus. In A, mill- 

 soni, however, the setse are ornamented at the tip. In the present 

 species I did detect a faint ti'ace of ornamentation of the same 

 nature as that of A. millsoni, where are denticulate ridges covering 

 the free end of the setae. The red colour of the setae which I have 

 referred to in A. millsoni was apparent at the imbedded end of the 

 seta, where it is thick and squarely cut off. This end was quite 

 red in several setae which I noted, the red coloration was not 

 always thus obvious. 



The penial appendages of the present species differ at least from 

 those of A. millsoni with which I have been able to compare them. 

 They are more like those of A. stuhlmanni. In contrast to those 

 of A. millsoni, the penes (as they may be termed in the absence of 

 precise knowledge as to their functions and since they bear the 

 male orifice) of the present species are not flattened and riband-like 

 organs, but plumper and deeply excavated on the ventral surface ; 

 so deep is the excavation that the process, when viewed from below, 

 is quite boat-like in shape. At the free extremity of the organ 

 the depth is much greater than elsewhere ; the part of the penis 

 attached to the body (text-fig. 60), and for a little distance away 

 from this as far as just before the first sucker, is not excavated, 

 but quite flat though still fairl}'^ thick. This seems to show that 

 the hollowing out of the organ is not a matter of unequal con- 

 traction, but is a real difference serving to differentiate the species 

 at least from A. millsoni. Nothing of the kind is to be seen 

 in Michaelsen's figures of A. stuhlmanni and of A. emini ; but 

 Levinsen figures the penes of A. nilotica as something like those of 

 the present species. The attachment of the penes to the body- 

 wall appears to present features of difference which may serve to 

 assist in the discrimination of the species. In A. millsoni, as I 

 have been able to assure myself by a re-examination of several 



