186 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
thickened, and further forward the loops began to appear. Vejdovsky 
goes on to describe how the original epithelial strand gradually degene- 
rates into connective tissue and disappears, and how the micronephridia 
are differentiated from the original Muiterstrang. The micronephridia 
have no nephridiostomes ; their efferent ducts are intercellular; of 
longitudinal canals there is in young forms no trace; nor were any 
meganephridia found ; the funnel rudiments originally present in each 
segment suffer degeneration except apparently in the most posterior seg- 
ments where meganephridia appear. The micro-nephridia are not to be 
regarded as primary, but the meganephridia are specialized structures, 
both derived from a common nephridial strand, which in its simplest 
form is comparable to the pronephridium of Bhynchelmis. 
New Genera and Species of Earthworms.* — Mr. F. E. Beddard 
commences with a description of Polytoreutus mdgilensis from Magila, 
East Central Africa ; one individual was 14J inches long ; especial 
attention is directed to the male generative apparatus ; there is an 
immense number of spermatophores, and this is, perhaps, the cause of 
the enormous development of the sperm-holding apparatus. The new 
genus and species, Trichochseta hesperidum , is founded on a single example 
of an earthworm from Jamaica ; it is one of the Geoscolicidae, which 
family, as now emended, consists of the author’s two families Ero- 
chaetidae and Geoscolicidae, minus Hormogaster and Glyphidrilus, but 
inclusive of Urolenus, Bhinodrilus, and Anteus. The forms included in 
it agree in having one to four pairs of spermato thecae, placed in the 
neighbourhood of the gizzard, and in wanting copulatory papillae. The 
constituents are, with the exception of the ubiquitous Pontoscolex , con- 
fined to the New World. The next family, or that of the Microchaetidae, 
has the spermatothecae usually as many small pouches in a segment, 
placed in the neighbourhood of the ovaries, while copulatory papillae 
are present in nearly every case ; the six genera, known to belong to 
this family, are natives of the tropical parts of the Old World. Pyg- 
mseodrilus lacuum sp. n. was found at Lagos, West Africa. Further 
notes are offered on the structure of SipJionog aster Millsoni , and the 
genus is said to belong to the family Geoscolicidae. 
The author concludes with an account of a new genus which he calls 
Alvania (A. Millsoni sp. n.) from Lagos ; it is one of the Eudrilidae, and 
is most closely allied to Heliodrilus - It agrees with Paradrilus in 
having no true spermatotheca, but only a ccelomic pouch which dis- 
charges the functions which in other earthworms are performed by the 
spermatothecae. 
Japanese Perichaetidse.f — Mr. F. E. Beddard has notes on four 
Japanese species of Perichseta , three of which are new ; the species of 
this genus found in Japan have certain peculiarities ; none have setae on 
the clitellar segments ; in several there is a tendency for the atria to 
disappear, and in P. rokugo sp. n. no trace is left ; this character is a 
step in the direction of the Geoscolicidae ; there is generally only one 
pair of receptacula ovorum, and the situation they occupy — in segment 
xiii. — is most unusual, when there is but a single pair. 
* Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci., xxxiv. (1893) pp. 243-78 (2 pis.). 
t Zool. Jahrb. (Abth. Syst.) vi. (1892) pp. 755-66 (1 pi.). 
