362 MR. p. E. BBDDABD ON EAKTHWORMS [Apr. 16, 



by myself, is distinguished from Gordiodrihis by the fact that the 

 sperm-ducts open by a single orifice on each side of the body into 

 a terminal muscular sac ; into this also opens one of the two or 

 three pairs of spermiducal glands. In the first described species 

 of Nannodrihis the spermiducal glands are but two pairs, of which 

 the posterior opens into the muscular bulbus on the xviiith 

 segment. In Dr. Michaelsen's subsequently described species 

 iV. staudei ' there is in addition a third pair of spermiducal 

 glands which open behind the muscular bulbus; so N. qfricanus 

 can be derived from that species by a suppression of the last pair 

 of spermiducal glands. In Gordiodrihis, on the other hand, the 

 sperm-ducts open directly on to the exterior, and not through 

 any terminal muscular bulbus ; that at least is the structure 

 of those species which have been investigated up to the present 

 time. The new form described in the present communication is, 

 however, different. There are as usual two pairs of spermiducal 

 glands which open, the one pair behind the other, on to segments 

 xix. and xx. On to segment xix./xx,, just at the boundary-line 

 and between the two pairs of spermiducal glands, open the sperm- 

 ducts. These ducts, instead of simply burrowing their way 

 through the integument, open first of all into a largish spherical 

 muscular bulbus like that of Nanuodrilus, which is not provided 

 with an appended spermiducal gland. This species is thus inter- 

 mediate between Nannodrihis staudei and the genus Gordiodrihis 

 as liitherto defined. The middle pair of spermiducal glands may 

 be supposed to have disappeared. Pygnwodrilus is a still further 

 reduction of the same structural plan. There is but one pair of 

 spermiducal glands, and the end of the vas deferens is involved 

 in a muscular sheath, which may be looked upon — as Michaelsen 

 has suggested — as the last remnant of such a muscular terminal 

 sac as is possessed by Nannodrihis or Gordiodrihis papillaUis. 

 Coming now to the details of structure of these various glands, the 

 spermiducal glands themselves ai'e long and extend throu.oh four 

 or five segments in front of their point of opening. It does not 

 seem to be important in which direction the glands lie, but in 

 the present species they are coiled and lie in front of the pores. 

 The glands themselves are, as in other species of the genus, lined 

 with a single glandular layer of cells. The terminal part which 

 perforates the body-wall is short and of less calibre than the 

 glandular part. It is lined by smaller and non-glandular cells : 

 the muscular layer enveloping it is thin. At the actual orifice one 

 of the two ventral setse has disappeared ; one, however, is clearly 

 present, so that in this matter Gordiodrihis painllatus seems to 

 differ from at any rate some of the other species of the genus, 

 in which the ventral pair of setse, and not merely one of the two 

 set?e, has disappeared. 



Female Organs of Generaticn . — The ovaries and oviducts furnish 



' "Neue und wenig bekannte afvikaniscbe Terricolen," JB. Hamb, wiss, 

 Anst. xiv. 



