ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
65 
has closed round so as to nip off the dorsal and ventral vessels entirely 
from the hypoblast, this brown body is no longer to be seen, but, floating 
in the liquid of both dorsal and ventral vessels and also in the vessels of 
the tentacles, there are pink-coloured corpuscles, which, in sections, are 
seen to have the appearance of broken-off bits of the dark body, present 
in the earlier stage, and containing for the most part each more than one 
nucleus. There seems to the writer to be very little doubt that by the 
further breaking up of such multi-nucleated corpuscles, the blood- 
corpuscles of the adult described last year by Benham would be formed, 
but unfortunately she was not able to obtain later larval stages, and to 
observe this breaking up coming on. 
New Species of Earthworms.* — Mr. F. E. Beddard has a pre- 
liminary account of new species of earthworms belonging to the 
Hamburg Museum. The collection consisted exclusively of members 
of the four families, Lumbricidae , Perichaetidae, Acanthodrilidae, and 
Cryptodr didae. The total absence of Eudrilidae from a collection made 
in South America is most singular. The Lumbricidae were fairly abun- 
dant, but the author is convinced that here, as elsewhere, they have 
been introduced. The collector of the worms, Dr. Michaelsen, observed 
that the proportion of Lumbricidae in his gatherings diminished with the 
increased distance from the coast. In cultivated gardens near the sea- 
board this family was the most abundant. This fact, which Prof. Spencer 
has confirmed for Australia, is an argument for regarding these worms 
as the result of intercourse between Europe and the countries in question. 
A fact which obviously points in the same direction is the invariable 
identity of the exotic species with the European, or North American 
forms. Of the genus Acanthodrilus twenty-two species are already 
known from South America, and all but five of these were collected by 
Dr. Michaelsen; all but four of these are regarded as new species. 
Many of them live equally well in fresh water and on land. Of the 
genus Kerria two new species are described. The Cryptodr ilidae are 
represented by the genus Microscolex only. Mr. Beddard proposes a 
new definition of this genus, and enumerates from Michaelsen’s collection 
eleven species, eight of which are new. For this genus, as for Acantho- 
drilus , South America appears to be the headquarters. The Perichaetidae 
were represented only by one new species of Perichaeta, and of that there 
was but a single specimen in the collection. 
Gonads of Lumbriculus variegatus.f — Prof. F. Vejdovsky, in 
answer to a criticism by Dr. E. Hesse, who denied the presence of a 
protrusible penis in the atrium, points out that in all cases observed the 
structure was present. He vindicates his position by giving a detailed 
description of the atrium. 
Nephridial Funnel of Hirudo.J — Dr. W. D. McKim describes the 
funnel associated with the seventh to seventeenth nephridia of the leech. 
In the first nine of these the terminal lobe of the nephridium lies on 
the dorsal surface of a testis, but this has no morphological interest. 
It is with this testicular lobe that the funnel is connected, enclosed in 
* Proc. Zool. Soc., 1895, pp. 210-39. 
+ Zeitschr. f. wiss. Zool., lix. (1895) pp. 80-82 (1 fig.). 
I Torn, cit., pp. 147-66 (2 pis.). 
1896 f 
