1126 The American Naturalist. [December 
Of fifteen pairs taken in conjugation May 8th, 1892, five had sperm- 
atophores as follows: two symmetrically placed, between rings 22 and 
23; one on the right side of the 23rd ; two symmetrically placed on the 
23rd; one on the left between the 23rd and 24th; two symmetrically 
placed on the 24th. 
The region in which these bodies are found, the 22nd to 24th rings is 
opposite to the openings of the male organs of the other animal during 
conjugation, as already emphasized and indicated in figs. 1 and 2, and as 
the distance between the bodies, when there are two, is equal to that 
between the two male openings we are led to infer that these 
spermatophores are formed where the male openings are pressed against 
the other animal. 
In serial transverse sections we find where the sperm is issuing 
from the male openings a condition of things such as is indicated in 
fig. 6. In the angle between the sides of the two worms just exterior 
to the closely applied ventral surfaces there is a considerable accum- 
ulation of sperm which is continuous with that issuing from the male 
opening. This extends backwards along the side of the worm that is 
ejecting it and is covered over by a dense, mucous, cuticle-like membrane 
as indicated in the figure. The glands near the male opening are 
‘evidently active and pouring out a dense secretion which fills up most 
of the space between the two worms and partly envelopes the large sperm 
mass. We have here what seems to be, with little doubt, a spermato- 
phore in process of formation; the secretion of the glands about the 
male opening forms a dense mass adhering to the other worm and 
receiving in its substance a considerable collection of sperm as it issues 
forth. When the worms separate the secretion should adhere to the 
worm opposite to the male opening and leave in it a little mass of sperm ; 
thus might arise spermatophores as are shown in fig. 3. 
If the spermatophores are formed in this way as entangling of some 
sperm in a local secretion about the male opening and are stuck to the 
other worm they might still be of use in fertilizing the eggs of that 
worm when they pass into the egg capsule for the egg capsule would 
glide forward from the girdle over the region where the spermatophores 
are stuck and perhaps carry them off. But it is very doubtful if the 
spermatophores remain attached till the eggs are laid. Of twenty-two 
worms bearing spermatophores not one had them after forty-eight hours 
when kept in confinement, nor were any eggs laid in that time. 
Though we regard the spermatophore as an accidental or at least 
useless structure as far as it has to do with any preservation of sperm 
we would not deny that the secretion about the male opening has a use 
whether sperm sticks in it or not. 
