DESCRIPTIONS OF GENERA AND SPECIES 555 



The above table is taken from that of Eisen; but I have left out one or two 

 characters, which appear to me to be of less importance; I have not included 

 K. spegazzinii, because in the first place its inclusion in the genus cannot be 

 regarded as a matter of certainty, and in the second place, a good many of the 

 characters used here to differentiate the species— in "fact most of them— are not 

 specially referred to by Rosa. The genus is aquatic. 



(i) Kerria spegazzinii (Rosa). 

 Acanthodrilus spegazzinii, RosA, Ann. Mus. Civ. Genova, vol. ix (aa), 1889, p. 516. 



Definition. Length, 50-60 mm.; breadth, 3 mm.; number of segments, 1 10-130. Colour 



a dirty yellow, the clitellum orange. Prostomium extending over one-half of the buccal 



segment. Clitellum, XIII-XIX, complete, excepting where the apertures of the sjoermiducal 



glands and of the sperm-ducts are. Sperm-duct pores on XVIII close to first seta; 



spermiducal gland pores related to the ventral pair of setae. Oviducal pores in front 



of the second seta. No gizzard; septa VIII/IX thickened. Spermiducal glands of great 



length, extending bach as far as the thirty-fifth segment, there are epidermic glands 



surrounding the external pores of the spermiducal glands, and also in a corresponding 



position on segments XVI and XX. Hab. — Temperley, near Buenos Ayres. 



This species is chiefly to be distinguished on account of its extraordinary long 



spermiducal glands, which are unparalleled in the family Acanthodrilidae. It may 



also be distinguished from the following species by the glands upon the sixteenth to 



the twentieth segments. Rosa considers that this species is probably identical with 



Kinbeeg's Mandane stagnalis; it is unnecessary to remark that Kinberg's brief 



description of the species is by no means sufficient whereon to form an opinion ; he 



speaks of 'ventral tubercles' on the twenty -first and twenty-third segments; this 



character is rather suggestive of a Luvibricus. The only reason — and that is not 



a very good one — for uniting the two species is that they are both aquatic in habit. 



Mandane stagnalis comes from Monte Video. 



The description of ' Acanthodrilus ' spegazzinii is followed by a few notes upon 

 another species, which is thought to be probably distinct from it though near to it ; 

 it is a transparent white in colour with a rose-white clitellum. Like the preceding 

 species it is found in meadow puddles. Besides the difference of colour the clitellum 

 is more extensive, reaching from segment twelve to segment twenty. The clitellum 

 also is undeveloped upon the whole of the ventral surface between the ventral setae. 

 Moreover, the two spermiducal gland pores are connected by a furrow on each side 

 — a character which is not mentioned for K. spegazzinii, though it is mentioned by 



4 B 3 



