1901.] ANNELID OP THE GENUS ALMA. 221 



A. stiMmanni. The whole organ is very vascular ; there are a 

 pair of strong lougifcudinaUy running blood-vessels whose cut ends 

 in a specimen from which the two penes were removed were ex- 

 ceedingly obvious. Besides this there is a rich network of capil- 

 laries pervading the organ ; and there are rich tufts of capillaries 

 penetrating within the epidermis itself. There is thus quite a 

 possibility of the organ serving, as was suggested by Levinsen, a 

 respiratory function. The vascularity of the organ appeared to 

 me to be more mai-ked than in A. millsoni. In the latter species, 

 it may be remarked, the penes are much thinner than in the 

 present species. The penes bear setse which are apparently limited 

 iu number to two pairs, as was occasionally found by Michaelsen 

 in A. stuhlmanni. The setse are rather slighter than those of the 

 body generally and end in a fine point. They are nearly str-aight, 

 and I could not detect any ornamentation. They are not unlike 

 those of A. stuhnanni. 



The setae of segments ix., x., xi., and some of the neighbouring 

 segments to a less extent, are implanted in very conspicuous papillse, 

 which may possibly play the part of tubei'cula pubertatis. They 

 are shown in the accompanying drawing (test-fig. 59, C). 



I have given a somewhat full description of certain of the ex- 

 ternal characters of this species, in order to justify my conclusion 

 that it probably belongs to Michaelsen's species Alma stuhlmanni. 

 That a West and an East African form should prove to be iden- 

 tical is a little surprising ; but less so when it is reflected that this 

 genus Alma is at least largely aquatic. I can see at present no 

 grounds for separating the two. The only point of difference 

 which occurred to me is that in A. stuhlmanni the genital setse are 

 much smaller in proportion to the ordinary body-setse than they 

 are in the worms from McCarthy Island. Until the clitellum of 

 the former is known, one cannot be quite certain. The internal 

 anatomy could not be satisfactorily investigated owing to the con- 

 dition of the specimens. 



I have at least shown that the subject of the present commu- 

 nication cannot be the same as Alma millsoni from West Africa. 



List of Memoirs referred to. 



(1) Letinsen. — " Om to nye Regnormslaegter fra ^gypten." 



Vidensk. Medd. Kjobn. 1889, p. 31. 



(2) Michaelsen. — " Beschreibung der von Herrn Dr. Fr. Stuhl- 



mann am Victoria Nyanza gesammelten Terricolen." JB. 

 Hamb. wiss. Anst. ix. 2, p. 8. 



(3) Michaelsen. — " Zur Kenntnis der Oligochseten." Abhandl. 



G-eb. Naturwiss. xiii. p. 7. 



(4) Michaelsen.- — Die Eegeuwiirmer Ost-Afrikas, in Deutsch- 



Ost-Afrika, ix. 1896, p. 4. 



(5) Beddabd. — " On an Earthworm of the Grenus Sij>honogasier 



from West Africa." Proc. Zool. Soc. 1891, p. 48. 



