192 MR. p. E. BEDDARD ON EARTHWORMS [Juiie 4, 



The worm was found upon the Kurungu mountains north of Lake 

 Kivu. 



This Benhamia is of a leaden colour with a distinct tinge of pink. 

 It is also, on account of its darkly pigmented body, beautifully 

 iridescent. It measures some 280 mm. in length, and is thus one 

 of the larger species of the genus ; the extreme diameter (behind 

 the clitellum) is 15 mm. ; it is thus a stoutly built M'orm. Towards 

 both ends of the body it tapers somewhat. As will be seen from 

 the drawing exhibited (text-fig. 12), many of the preclitellar segments 

 are biannulate. The jJ'i^osto'mium is quite small and entirely re- 

 tracted within the buccal cavity. It is continued back by a slender 

 prolongation a short distance over the buccal segment. The dorsal 

 pores of this worm are apparently rather remarkable in one matter. 

 They commence between segments v./vi., as in many species of 

 the genus. Four plainly obvious pores follow the first one, which 

 is not so pronounced as they are. Then there is a gap where two 

 pores ought to be. It might be imagined that this gap was appa- 

 rent and not real, due simply to the greater contraction of the body 

 at this part. On dissection, however, the pores were exceedingly 

 plain. And I observed that on the border-line of the three seg- 

 ments, where the dorsal pores were apparently absent, the longi- 

 tudinal muscle which acts as an expansor muscle of the pore was 

 carried right across the place where the pore should be, instead of 

 ending at its mai'gin as is the case when the pore is present. There 

 seems to be thus no doubt as to the real absence of these pores 

 from the segments mentioned, a curious circumstance which I,, do 

 not recollect having seen referred to in any other species. Between 

 segments xii./xiii. the pores recommence and continue in an un- 

 broken line to the very end of the body. On the clitellum a median 

 groove partly obliterates the actual pores ; it runs from pore to pore 

 and on the anterior part of the clitellum is continuous for some 

 distance ; there are traces of it also elswhere upon the clitellum. 

 It is not a furrowing of the integument, but a slight folding which 

 may of coitrse be due to contraction ; and yet this is not certain, 

 since it is the ventral side of this worm which was most contracted, 

 a circumstance which ought to have resulted in a tauter condition 

 of the opposite side of the body. 



The setce, as is universal in this genus, are strictly paired, and lie 

 entirely upon the ventral surface of the body. 



The clitellum is fairly extensive. It begins Avith the xiiith and 

 ends with the xxiiird segment, thus occupying eleven segments. 

 The middle region of the clitellum, including segments xiv.-xxi., 

 is more compacted, owing to a reduction in the depth of the inter- 

 segmental furrows. The ventral surface of a considerable poz*tion 

 of this is deeply depressed, as in other species of Benhamia, and thus 

 forms a sucker-like structure, extending from about the fifteenth to 

 the twentieth segment. This area surrounds of course the male 

 pores. The arrangement of these will be apparent from an inspec- 

 tion of the drawing exhibited (text-fig. 12). The species shows no 

 ereat differences from the conditions which have been observed 



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