1887.] NEW GENUS OF LUMBRXCIDiE. 159 



rather than protruded, and the segments of the body in most instances 

 were perfect!}' normal and not unduly contracted. The ffiz~ard is hke 

 that of other Earthworms. 



Oesophageal Glands. — Behind the gizzard and in front of the 

 intestines the oesophagus is furnished with certain glands, which 

 are evidently the homologues of similarly placed glands in other 

 Earthworms. These glands are kidney-shaped and he on the dorsal 

 or lateral aspect of the oesophagus, with the concave side turned 

 towards the oesophagus ; at the middle of its concavity the gland 

 is connected with the oesophagus by a short duct. The general 

 appearance of these glands is strikingly similar to the " kidney- 

 shaped glands" which I have described^ in the intestinal region of 

 Megascolex caruleus ; aj)parently they also resemble in outward 

 appearance the oesophageal glands of Notoscolex camdetiensis", 

 though frequently the oesophageal glands of Earthworms have not 

 this peculiar shape. 



The oesophageal glands of Tliamnodrilus are furnished with a 

 Tery abundant blood-supply. This blood-supply is derived from 

 the supraintestinal trunk, and not from the dorsal vessel ; in the 

 case of the two posterior pairs, at any rate, of these glands, a 

 branch is given off on either side from the supraintestinal vessel ; 

 this at once divides into two tiunks ; the inner branch goes to 

 the septum and ramifies upon its surface ; the outer branch 

 conveys blood to the oesophageal gland, which it reaches by 

 passing along the pedicle by which that gland is attached to the 

 oesophageal walls ; the vessel then breaks up into a network of 

 capillaries on both the anterior and posterior surfaces of the gland. 

 It is important to notice that in these segments both the dorsal 

 region of the mesentery and the oesophageal gland are supplied with 

 blood from the supraintestinal trunk ; the dorsal vessel gives off 

 no branches in these segments. In Urochceta the calciferous glands 

 have, according to Perrier, a similar blood-supply. 



There were altogether six pairs of these glands situated in seg- 

 ments 9-14 ; the last two pairs, i. e. those situated in segments 

 13 and 14, were situated nearer to the dorsal surface of the in- 

 testine than those which preceed them. The number of those 

 glands (six pairs) is unusual, three being the almost constant number 

 of pairs in other Earthworms; in certain species of Perichceta, 

 however, there appear to be as many as six pairs of oesophageal 

 glands. 



Body-cavity. — The dissection of this part of the body was rendered 

 very difficult by the toughness of the septa in this region and by their 

 firm connection with one another by numerous tendinous threads; 

 these septa, however, in Thamnodrilus, are not specially thickened, 

 as they are in many other Earthworms, but are thin and transparent, 

 as in the posterior region of the body. 



The body communicates with the exterior only by the apertures 

 of the nephridia ; there are no dorsal pores present. 



^ Trans. Eoy. Soc. Ediiib. toI. xxxii. 



^ Proc. Liim. Soc. N. S. W. 1886, pi. viii. fig. 1, i.g. 



