144 Memoirs of the Indian Museum. [Vol. V, 



deferens, which latter pierces through it without interruption and reaches the surface 

 at the position of the (absent) ventral setae of xii. 



The ovaries, and masses of ova, are contained in segment xii. Funnels and 

 oviducts were not observed. 



The spermathecae are in segment v, and communicate with the oesophagus. 

 The ampulla is small, ovoid in shape, 50M in diameter; the duct is a narrow tube, 

 14M in diameter, of considerable length and with a few slight bends in its course. 

 There were no spermatozoa in the ampullae. 



This little worm is stated to be practically colourless in life, but rather opaque. 



The discovery of the present species is of interest in several ways. Though 

 (like the Tubificidae) occurring in such abundance in the temperate regions of Europe, 

 the Enchytraeidae seem to be very rare in India ; the present is the fourth species 

 which has been completely investigated. This rarity is probably partly apparent, 

 partly real; and the same may be said of the Tubificidae also, of which too only four 

 species have been recorded. 



A feature that is worthy of note is the presence of sperm-sacs. These are not 

 invariably present in the genus Enchytraeus ; out of the two other Indian species of 

 the genus they are absent in one (E. indiens), present in the other (E. harurami). 

 In the present species the sacs are of the same nature as those of E. harurami, and 

 differ from those of the Naididae and of the genus Mesenchytraeus, the only other 

 Enchytraeid genus in which \ho.y are found. In Mesenchytraeus and the Naididae 

 the sacs are pocket-like backward extensions of the septum which forms the poste- 

 rior wall of the testis segment ; here they are closed bags, seated on or suspended 

 from the anterior wall of the segment, and containing both testis and developing 

 sperm-morulae. The sacs do not include the funnels of the vasa deferentia; and 

 since they are, in the stages at which I have examined them, completely closed, it is 

 not obvious how the spermatozoa escape {cf. remarks on E. harurami, in a previous 

 paper: "On a collection of Oligochaeta, mainly from Northern India", Rec. Ind. 

 Mus., vol. x, p. 321, 1914). 



Another point of interest is the condition of the salivary glands ("pepto- 

 nephridia"). In the species in which they occur, they are found usually as narrow 

 curling tubes extending back for a few segments behind the pharynx, from the 

 posterior end of which they take origin. In the present case there are a pair of 

 small club-shaped structures, quite short and inconspicuous, discovered in the series 

 of longitudinal sections, though they would probably have escaped notice during 

 life; these originate from the posterior end of the pharynx, and seem to correspond 

 to the salivary glands of other forms. Similar rudimentary salivary glands appear 

 to have been described by Ude ("Beiträge zur Kenntnis der Enchyträiden und 

 Lumbriciden ", Zeit. f. wiss. Zool., vol. 61, 1895) in Bryodrilus ehlersi, though I have 

 not seen the original paper. 



The above characters, together with the setal distribution, are sufficient to 

 distinguish the form as a new species. 



