1901.] J^ROM BRITISH BAST ArBJOxl. 345 



01igocba)ta has been much debated, aud is, perhaps, not yet settled 

 in all cases. It seems clear, however, that in such Lumbricids 

 as AUolohojihora amstricta \ Alma stuhlmanni ", and, among the 

 aquatic forms, the Tubificid Bothrioneuron ^ the spermatophores 

 must be formed by the glandular tissue which envelops the exit of 

 the sperm-duct on to the body-wall, since uot one of these forms pos- 

 sesses either spermathecffi or tubercula pubertatis, which have been 

 set down by various authors as the seat of their manufacture. Even 

 in those genera of Oligochaeta which do possess either spermathecaa 

 or tubercula pubertatis, or both, there is not always substantial 

 evidence iu favour of assigning to one or other of these two struc- 

 tures the duties of the production of spermatophores. Thus the 

 comparatively narrow luuien of the terminal enlargement of the 

 male efferent apparatus in Tvbife.v ' and its allies seems better suited 

 to mould the elongated spermatophores of these Annelids than are 

 the comparatively capacious spennathecie. So too with the genus 

 Polyforeiitus, which possesses spermatophores, as I have just 

 pointed out, of pretty nearly the same characters as those of the 

 Tubificidse ; its extensive spermiducal glands with their narrow 

 lumen is, at least on a priori grounds, admirably suited for the 

 formation of the spermatophores, while the enormously capacious 

 spermathecal sacs are distinctly not. 



Nevertheless there are facts which seem to sho\¥ that the 

 speruiatophores of many Tubificidse are — at any rate largely — 

 produced by the activity of the epithelium lining the spermathecal. 

 Lankester pointed out that in Tiibifex rivulorum there was fre- 

 quently to be observed a ridge round the " head " of the spermato- 

 phore, the form of which corresponded exactly with the contour of 

 the distal end of the spermathecse where it debouches on to the 

 exterior ; spermatophores were even found at this spot fitting into 

 the short diverticula on either side of the end of the spermatheca, 

 which is of coui-se strong evidence of their having been moulded 

 in situ. The same author mentioned iu suppox't of his opinion the 

 fact that in Fsammoryctes harJxita, \\ here the end of the spermatheca 

 has no such crumplings, the spermatophores have not the peculiar 

 head of those of Tuhifex rivtdorum — a fact which subsequent in- 

 vestigations upon Psammoryctes harhata have fully borne out '. 

 At the same time, not all the spermatophores of T. rivulorum have 

 this peculiarity of form ; and it is remarkable that in the Algerian 

 Tuhife.v hlanchordi, whose spermathecse are stated by Vejdovsky " 



1 •' Suir Asseuza dei Eeceptacula Seminis in alcuni Liiuibricidi," Boll. Mus. 

 Zool. Torino, iv. No. 71, Nov. 1889. 



■' P. Z. S. 1901, Yol. i. p. 217. 



^ "Monografie Oeskych. Tubificidii,'' Abhaudl. Bohm. Gesells. vii. 1888; 

 Beddard, P. Z. S. 1901", vol. i. p. 81. 



' " On the Structui-e and Origin of the Spermatophores or Sperm-ropes of 

 two Species of Tuhifex," Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci. xi. p. 180. 



' Vejdovsky, "Ueber Fsammoryctes umhcHifcv {Tuhifex uriilyellifer E. E. 

 Lank.) und ilim verwtindte Gattungen," Zeitsehr. wiss. Zool. xxvii. p. 137; Stole, 

 loc. cii . pi. iii. fig. 14. 



" "Note snr nn Tabifex d'Algerie," Mem. Soc. Zool. France, iv. p. 1, 



