700 MR. F, E. BEDDARD ON NEW [Dec. 20j 



cells serving as nutritive cells to the developing ova ; the oviducts 

 are peculiar in that they perforate the septum dividing segments 

 xiii./xiv. twice. The funnel opens freely into the interior of segment 

 xiii. right opposite the ovary and also into the interior of the egg- 

 sac ; it then passes into the cavity of the thirteenth segment and 

 bending back runs straight along the body-wall up to its point of 

 opening on to the exterior. The oviduct has thus an unusually long 

 course, which is further increased by the fact that the pore is 

 situated near to the hinder end of the fourteenth segment ; the 

 calibre of the oviduct is considerably greater than that of the sperm- 

 duct ; the two can be easily compared in this respect, as the sperm- 

 duct passes close to the oviduct ; the oviduct is not ensheathed in 

 a muscular coat ; the ciliated epithelium is only covered by a delicate 

 peritoneal layer. 



The ovaries lie in the thirteenth segment, attached, as is usual, to 

 the front wall of that segment. The septum dividing segments 

 xii./xiii. joins that which follows, and a sac is thus formed which 

 encloses the ovaries and the terminal bulbus of the spermatotheca. 

 Centrally this sac is almost filled by the bulbus, but laterally there 

 is plenty of room, and the spacious cavity thus formed is occupied 

 not only by the ovaries and detached ova, but also by an immense 

 quantity of small nucleated, often fusiform corpuscles ; similar 

 corpuscles are also found in great abundance in the xith segment. 

 I am doubtful whether to regard these as slightly metamorphosed 

 cells of the ovary and testis respectively or merely as perivisceral 

 corpuscles, which happen to have been aggregated together in 

 greater numbers in the two segments referred to than elsewhere. 



The ripe ova (from the egg-sac) have no striated membrane such 

 as is found in certain other Eudrilids. 



This worm evidently belongs to one of the more simply organized 

 of the Eudrilidse ; for the fusion of the female organs is incomplete. 

 It must therefore be referred to one of the following genera, viz. 

 Eudriloides, Platydrilus, Megachceta, Reithrodrilus, or Notykus. 



As to external characters it agrees with Platydrilus in having a 

 saddle-shaped clitellum, and also in the extent of the clitellum. 



The internal anatomy is in some respects unlike any of these 

 genera ; for instance, the peculiar form of the calciferous glands 

 marks out the present species from all Eudrilidse including those 

 mentioned, in none of which are there calciferous glands at all. 



In possessing one pair of testes and in the corresponding single 

 funnels &c. the worm resembles Notyhus, Eudriloides, Megachceta '( ; 

 but this is not of course an important difference from Platydrilus &c. 

 The complete fusion of the two atria is peculiar to the worm, though 

 a commencing fusion occurs in Eudriloides, from which, however, 

 the species described here differs in the shortness of the atria and in 

 the absence of a muscular tunic. The principal reason which leads 

 me to refer the worm to the genus Eudriloides is the structure of 

 the female organs. 1 have described the modification of the septum 

 dividing segments xiii./xiv., which forms a sac enclosing the terminal 

 part of the spermatothecal sac and the ovaries and oviducal funnels : 



