DESCRIPTIONS OF GENERA AND SPECIES 



209 



LUMBBICULUS : 

 GLANDS. 



BLOOD- 



(after Claparfede.) 



I. Ventral blood-vessel. 2. Dorsal 

 blood-vessel. 3-5. Branches of last 

 with caecal twigs. 



leaves the funnel, and then, bending back again, passes through the septum, to open 

 independently of the anterior vas deferens into the terminal gland. 



In Sutroa (see Eisen 2, 5, Beddaed 81) the plan 

 upon which the male efferent apparatus is constructed is 

 the same, but the spermiducal gland is enormously long. 

 Eclipidrilus is altogether anomalous. 

 Vejdovsky divides the family into two sub-families, 

 (i) Trichodrihna and (a) Lumbriculina, characterized by 

 the absence (in the former) or the presence (in the 

 latter) of a paired or unpaired albumen-gland. Sutroa 

 would, perhaps, be included in the second sub-family ; 

 but it differs quite as much from either sub-family as 

 the two sub-families do from each other; Eclipidrilus 

 and Alluroides would, undoubtedly, need a fourth and 

 fifth sub-family for their reception, if, indeed, it is 

 justifiable to include them in the family Lumbriculidae at 

 all. As it is, in my opinion, undesirable to break up so small a family (containing only 

 twenty species) into four sub-families, I would prefer to separate it only into genera. 

 The following table (p. aio) shows the resemblances and differences between those 

 genera, excepting Eclipidrilus, whose structure is known. 



Another aberrant Lumbriculid is Alluroides; this genus, which is a native of 

 tropical East Africa, was described by myself quite recently (84) ; it has the outward 

 form of a Tubificid, but agrees with the Lumbriculidae in the following points: — 

 (i) The setae are all S- shaped ; they are paired, 

 (a) The spermiducal gland is clothed by a thick glandular layer. 

 (3) The longitudinal muscle-layer of the body-wall is formed by a single row 

 of deep plates. 

 These three characters do not co-exist in any worm that does not belong to 

 this family. In other points that are not distinctive of the Lumbriculidae, but 

 which are characteristic of all the genera of that family, Alluroides agrees with 

 other Lumbriculidae. These are: — 



(i) Ova of large size, and fiUed with yolk. 



(a) No glands appended to the alimentary tract except septal glands. 



(3) No gizzard. 



(4) Funnels of the sperm-duct a segment in advance of the spermiducal gland. 



(5) Ovaries in segment containing spermiducal gland. 



And in a number of other small points, without which the genus could not be 



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