292 MR FRANK E. BEDDARD 



aquatic 01igocha3ta ; for instance, the ventral setse, with their non-bifurcate extremity. 

 At present setse of this description are only met with in the Enchytrseidse among the 

 lower forms. The form of the setse in question in Phreodrilus is certainly different in 

 some details from the setse of the Lumbriculidse, but they conform to the same general 

 type. I have described in some detail (p. 258) the curious " blood gland" of Phreodrilus, 

 and have compared it with the dilated branches of the dorsal vessel, which are so 

 characteristic of the Lumbriculidse. Phreodrilus also agrees with some members of that 

 family in the position of the spermathecse ; and if I am right in my supposition that the 

 csecal appendage of the sperm duct is the metamorphosed equivalent of the second sperm 

 duct of the Lumbricidus, there is an interesting point of affinity to that group. The 

 non-ciliation of the atrium, however, removes Phreodrilus from the neighbourhood of 

 the Lumbriculidse no less than from the neighbourhood of the Tubificidse and the lower 

 forms ; indeed this organ is altogether peculiar. 



A survey of the structure of Phreodrilus leads me to the conclusion that it should 

 be placed some way off the line leading from the more highly developed Lumbriculidse 

 to the lower Naidomorpha, but that its precise relationships require further study, and 

 cannot be determined with any probability of success at the present time. 



DESCRIPTION OF PELODRILUS VIOLACEUS, nov. gen. n.sp. 



The Annelids which form the subject of the present communication, were, like the 

 last, collected and preserved by Mr W. W. Smith of East Belt, Ashburton, New Zealand, 

 to whose kindness I have been for some years past greatly indebted for specimens of 

 New Zealand Oligochseta. 



They were collected about a mile from Ashburton, in rich wet soil, at a little distance 

 from a swamp. They are described by Mr Smith as " flesh-coloured" during life. The 

 worms were fixed with corrosive sublimate and hardened in alcohol ; their colour in the 

 preserved state is bluish-grey, caused by the transparent walls and the opaque contents 

 of the alimentary tract. 



The length of the specimens varies from 1 to 2 inches ; they are very slender, 

 and resemble a Phreoryctes or Lumhriculus. Most of them have the clitellum well 

 developed ; and this fixes the period of maturity to the month of August, when they 

 were collected. 



I find that they belong to a distinct generic type, for which I propose the name 

 Pelodrilus. They have affinities both to the Lumbriculidse and Phreoryctidse. 



§ External Characters. 



(1.) Prostomium. — The prostomium of Pelodrilus is short and blunt, and very in- 

 conspicuous in the preserved specimens ; it has no resemblance to that of Phreoryctes, 

 which is divided by a furrow into two portions. 



