i ee) ieee Ties 
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THE GIANT EARTH-WORM OF GIPPSLAND. 7 
diminishing in size till the twenty-fourth or twenty-fifth, after which the same size is 
maintained till the very posterior end, where the segments again become 
enlarged. The prostomium overhanging the mouth is ribbed by longitudinal folds, 
and the first or buccal segment is divided into two by a groove; the second and third 
segments are of nearly the same width as the first, and each is similarly divided into 
two annuli by a median groove; the fourth seement is broader and has its groove 
nearer to the anterior than the posterior end. After the fourth segment, and as far 
back as the thirteenth, the grooves dividing the segments into annuli are somewhat 
irregular and frequently incomplete ; the figure represents them in the worm taken 
for description, though slight variations in the grooves are to be found in different 
specimens. Posterior to segment thirteen, the segments are faintly triannulate. 
There is no difficulty, especially in an expanded worm, in counting the segments, 
as the grooves marking them off are much more definite than those marking off the 
annuli. The setze vary in distinctness in various parts of the body and in different 
examples, and I have not been able to detect them anteriorly in front of the eleventh 
segment, though Mr. Fiurcusmr appears to have done so. ‘There is not the slightest 
difficulty in all specimens, at all events in certain parts of the body, in seeing them, 
or rather, the little papille from the tops of which they protrude. There are, as 
described by Professor McCoy and Mr. Fuxrcusr, eight longitudinal rows forming 
four series of pairs, but, as stated by the latter, the sete of the outer pairs of each 
segment are further apart than those of the inner pairs. The sete also agree well in 
shape with the description given by Mr. Fuercumr, they have a slight sigmoid 
flexure and a distinct swelling, about one-third of the way from the free pointed tip. 
Each has also a slightly swollen rounded extremity at the internal end where the 
protractor muscles are attached, which can be well seen when sections of the body 
wall containing the setze are cut. (Plate 3, fig. 13.) 
‘The setee only project very slightly beyond the surface of the body and are 
probably of but very little service to the animal in progression. None are specially 
modified in connection with the male genital aperture, and those which should 
oceupy the position of the latter—that is the ventral pair on either side of the body in 
the eighteenth segment—cannot be seen either macroscopically or by means of 
sections. 
The dorsal pores which are very evident oval openings in the mid dorsal line, com- 
mence about the fifteenth segment, that is immediately behind the remarkably strong 
septa in the anterior part of the body. ach pore is very clearly situated exactly in 
the line of the groove separating two segments from one another. (Fig. 2, dp.) 
The pores can be traced back to the very last segment. The general body surface has 
a dirty pinkish flesh colour, and is quite intransparent. In segments 13-21 inclusive, 
however, the skin is dark purple in colour, and distinct from that elsewhere in the 
possession of a large glandular development immediately beneath the epidermis and 
external to the muscle-layers. (Plate 2, fig. 6.) The whole of this part may, with 
