340 ME. r. E. BEDDABD OJf EAKTHWOBMS [^pr. 16, 



The median part o£ the spermathecal sac is traversed by two lon- 

 o-itudiual blood-vessels, of which one is the ventral blood-vessel and 

 the other a special branch for this part of the body ; the two give 

 off branches laterally and have the relations of an artery and a 



vein. 



The interior of the spermathecal sac was filled with a white mass 

 friable, and when broken up of a "curdy " appearance. This when 

 examined microscopically was seen to consist of a granular substance 

 in which I could detect no sti-ucture and of multitudinous spermato- 

 phores (described below, p. 341). 



The immature Polytoreutus, to which I have referred, is probably 

 not an example of P. hindei. Eut I am unable to fix its specific 

 identity further. I should have hardly thought it worth while to give 

 any account of this worm were it not for the fact that a study of 

 it enables me to point out that the female generative apparatus is 

 not always developed before the male as I found to be the case in 

 P. lilindinensis \ In the present specimen the male pore was 

 conspicuous and upon the middle of segment xvii. One of the 

 ventral pair of setse has disappeared — naturally the innermost one 

 on either side. On the boundary-line between segments xviii. and 

 xix. was the smaller aperture of the spermathecal sac. The ventral 

 pair of setse M'ere not modified in the neighbourhood of this pore. 

 Internally I could find no trace of the spermathecal sacs. On the 

 other hand, the sperm-sacs were fairly developed and were divisible, 

 as is often the case in this genus, into a thin proximal region and 

 a stout distal region. They originated in segment xii., and the thin 

 part of the sacs did not widen out until the fourteenth segment. 

 At the distal end the two sacs were fused together as in P. gregor- 

 ianiis '. The terminal apparatus of the male ducts was only 

 represented by a bursa with muscular walls, and of a long and thin 

 form, not a spherical pouch as in Polytoreutus generally. It 

 suggested in fact the disconnected bursa of StiMmannia. If the 

 shape was a transitory embryonic feature, it is of interest ; but 

 such a bursa may of course characterize the species. 



(2) On the Si^ermatophores of Polytoreutus. 



The spermatophores of this genus, the only genus of exotic 

 earthworms save Alma ^ known to possess these structures, were 

 discovered by myself in P. magilensis* and later in P. violaceus^. 



In the present species they appear to have a very different general 

 appearance from those of the former species mentioned, but they 



' " A Contribution to our Knowledge of the Oligochasta of Tropical Eastern 

 Africa," Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci. (n.s.) xxxvi. p. 240. 



2 P.Z.S. 1901, vol. i. p. 193. 



3 See Beddarcl, " On the Clitellum and Spermatophores of an Annelid of the 

 Genus Alma;' P. Z. S. 1901, vol. i. p. 21.5. 



* " Two new Genera and some new Species of Earthworms," Quart. Journ. 

 Micr. Sci. (n.s.) xxxiv. p. 250. 



5 "A Contribution to our Knowledge of the Oligochseta of Tropical Eastern 

 A.frica," ib. xsxvi. p. 234. 



