igoS.] W. M1CHAE1.SEN : Oligochceta of the Indian Empire and Ceylon. 199 



Circulatory system: Dorsal vessel simple. Last hearts in the 12th segment. 



Nephridial system micronephric. 



x^nterior male organs: Two pairs of seminal vesicles united in their 

 entire length and placed ventral-medially in the loth and nth segments, those of 

 the fore pair smaller than those of the hind pair. Each seminal vesicle contains a 

 si)erm-duct-funnel and communicates with a sperm-sac in the following segment. 

 Sperm -sacs sack-like, laterally fissured and incised, those in the 12th segment bigger 

 than those in the nth segment. The seminal vesicles of the fore pair in segment 10 

 apparently communicating also with a pair of sperm-sacs in the loth segment. These 

 latter sperm-sacs are flat, deeply incised and hand-shaped. 



Prostates: Glandular part big, occupying several segments, flat, heart-shaped, 

 with notched border and densely fissured surface. Duct rather long, muscular, nar- 

 rowed at both ends, forming a great loop extending backwards. Duct opening directly, 

 without the intermediacy of a copulatory pouch. 



Spermathecae (fig. 27) : Main pouch with big sac-like ampulla and very 

 short, rather thick, but in relation to the ampulla thin duct. A diverticulum opens 

 into the distal end of this duct. The diverticulum is a slender tube, swollen at the 

 free end to form a simple pear-shaj^ed seminal chamber. The diverticulum forms 

 some wide loops. Extended it would surpass by far the tip of the main pouch. 



Hab.— lyower Burma, Amherst; Major A. R. S. ANDERSON leg. 



Sub-fam. Octochaetinas* 



The validity of this sub-family has lately been doubted by BENHAM,' but I can- 

 not at all acknowledge the correctness of his arguments. He says. I.e., p. 230, in re- 

 ference to the genera OctochcBtus andDinodrihuS : " It seems to me that MICHAELS EN 

 is in error in separating these two genera from other acanthodriline forms and associat- 

 ing them in a separate sub-family, the Octochgetinge, with Eutyphoens and Hoplo- 

 chœtella ; for, apart from the micronephric condition there is really little to distinguish 

 OctochcBtus from N otiodrilus ; moreover their presence in New Zealand indicates their 

 close association th erewith." The geographical part of this argument may provisionally 

 be laid aside to be discussed later. As for the near affinity between Octochcetits 

 and N otiodrilus (or Eodrilus, as it is to be called now after a convenient restriction. 

 All these discussions dial with the recent representatives of what I called '' Acan- 

 thodriline Urform," the primordial acanthodriline form), I never denied it. But it 

 might as well be pointed out that Notiodrilus (Eodrilus) is closely related to Maori- 

 drilus, which only differs from it by the arrangement of the nephridial pores, or to 

 Chilota, which only differs by the loss of the hinder pair of testes and sperm-ducts, 

 or to Diplocardia, which only differs by the possession of two gizzards instead of one, 

 or to other acanthodriline genera only diffariag from Notiodrilus {Eodrilus) in one 

 particiliar. It means qaite to misuni^rstaad tli2 pirti^aUr systenitic [i.e., phyletic) 

 position of the acanthodriline primordial form, represented by the recent genus 



I W. B BEXHAM, On some Edible and other New Sp3cies of Earthworms from the North 

 Island of New Zealand; in Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1904, vol. ii, p. 220. 



