208 MR. F. E. BEDDARD OX THE OLIGOCII.ETE [Mar. 6, 



subfamily of the Eudrilidfe {Pareudrilacea) *, extend from segment 

 vi. to xii. inclusive. 



The septa which lie between segments v./xii. are vei-y thick ; 

 those which divide the two following segments are moderately 

 thick and are at least distinguishable by theii' size from those 

 which fullow. It is noteworthy that the septa Avhicli enclose 

 segment xiii. approach each other very closely in the middle 

 of the body in immature examples which I have examined in 

 glycerine after dividing them longitudinally. This is not infre- 

 quent in the ovarian segment of eai'thwoims. 



Although the female reproductive organs were more or less 

 fully developed in two out of the five examples which I studied of 

 this species, 1 am not able to give a complete account of their 

 .structure. There is, however, a median spermathecal sac which 

 opens upon the thirteenth segment to the exterior. This is 

 connected wdth an egg- conducting apparatus, as in other species of 

 the genus. 



It is largely the asymmetry of the female generative apparatus 

 which leads me to refer the present species to the genus 

 Stuhlmannia ; though it is, of course, not this feature alone 

 which has inflvienced me. There are obviously other points 

 of similarity. In his account of both Stuhlmannia variabilis and 

 ^S'. gracilis Michaelsen has not noticed the asymmetry f. In 

 examples of a species wdiich I regarded as belonging to that 

 species t I commented upon the fact that the receptaculum 

 ovorum of one side of the body was rudimentary. In a more 

 recent and moi-e exhaustive account of the female reproductive 

 system of the genus, and as I thought of the same species, viz. 

 *S'. variabiUs, I described at length § the same series of facts. 

 Still later I found || in a third species of the genus, viz. S. michael- 

 se7ii, the same asymmetry. 



There is some discrepancy in the three accounts given by 

 me of the asymmetry which possibly are not real discrepancies, 

 I have described in some cases the left and in others the right 

 side of the apparatus as partly rudimentary. In the species 

 which foims the subject of the present communication there is no 

 doubt that it is the light side which is fully developed and the 

 left receptaculum ovorum which is rudimentaiy. This agrees 

 with my account of Stuhlmannia michaelseni and with my earlier 

 statement as to the matter contained in the " Monograph." If 

 there is an error I am not now able to rectify it. But I can say 

 positively that in Stuhlmannia inermis I found the receptaculum 

 to be rudimentary upon the left side of the body. The median 

 spermathecal sac gives off a branch upon each side which passes 



* Beddarcl, Quart. Jouni. Micr. Sci. vol. xxxvi., u. s. 



t " Besclireibung der von Hen- Dr. Fr. Stulilmaiin auf Sansibar uiid dem gegen- 

 iiberlieg-enden Festlande gesammelteiiTeiTicolon," Jahrb. Hamb. wiss. Anst. ix. (1891), 

 and " Die Regenwiimier Ost-Afrikas," in Deutsch Ost-Afiika, Bd. iv. 



X A Monograpli oftlie Order Oligocba'ta (Oxford, 1895). 



§ " On some Earthworms from British East Africa," P. Z. S. 1901, vol. i. p. 351. 



II " On a new Genus and Two new Species, &c.," P. Z. S. 1903, vol. i. p. 212. 



