1901.] MH G \. i;<>iu;\<.i:k <>n \ i kiian n.vTku hi \ns. 7<»9 



earthworms which do not possess sperniathecae is intelligible 



enough, as some place is required tor the storage of sperm, and 

 the male ducts are not furnishe 1 with glandular or atrial appendices 

 oE sufficient roominess to enclose the liberated sperm. The 

 question, however, raises the larger question of the meaning and 

 homologies of the spermathecae, which is one that is hardly ripe 

 for discussion at present. 



I. Further Notes on the African Batraehians Tricho- 

 batrachus and Gampsosteonyx. By G. A. Boulenoi k, 

 P.R.S. 



[Received November 19, l'JOl.] 

 (Plate XXXVIII.) 



Since the publication, in the Society's Proceedings ', of the account 



of the Batraehians and Reptiles obtained in the Gaboon district by 

 .Mr. (f. L. Bates, further collect inns have been received at the 

 Natural History Museum, made by that energetic collector in 

 the same district and also in the Bulu Country, Camaroons. 

 Among the Batraehians sent from the latter country, [ was happy 

 to find further examples of fiie two Progs which have been de- 

 scribed as Trichobatrachus robustus and Gampsosteonyx batesi, the 

 former upon two specimens, the latter upon a single one, and this 

 fresh material adds much to our knowledge of these extraordinary 

 Batraehians. 



Trichobatrachus is now represented by seven further specimens. 

 With reference to the villose dermal papillae, from which the name 

 is derived, I observed in the original description that L suspected it 

 to be a mere seasonal peculiarity, which, far from being a nuptial 

 attribute of the males, as one might have been inclined to suppose 

 from analogy with various fishes, is more strongly developed in 

 the female than in the male. Dr. Gadow, who, with the assist- 

 ance of Mr. F. F. Laidlaw, has since made an examination of the 

 histological structure of these hair-like appendages, remarks ' that 

 they consist of finger-shaped prolongations of the skin with an 



avis df fibrOUS connective tissue which is a little denser than 



the neighbouring skin : small, very insignificant blood-vessels and 

 lymph-spaces are present, but no nerves or nerve-terminations 

 could be detected ; the_\ are therefore not sensory organs. We 

 |Mis>es- in i clue whatever to I heir physiological signification. Now, 



of tie- five adult leu specimens, two are males and three are 



females, evidently obtained during the breeding-season, as evidenced 



by the nuptial asperities on the inner finger of the males and by 

 the state of the oviducts of one of the females, filled with verj 

 large ova ' millim. in diameter; and these mah^ have the hair-like 



1 P.Z 8, 1900, \>. 133. 

 • Anat An/, nmm. 1900, p. 



