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Show 358 MR. F. E. BEDDARD ON" EARTHWORMS [A-Pr- 1^, lida?. Iu any case I have ascertained that in several genera of the Pareudriline division the arrangement of the funnels with reference to the testes is carried out on the normal 01igocha?tous plan. However, in Stuhlmannia, with which I deal here, the funnels bend round and open into a funnel which faces the hinder end of the body precisely as they do in Teleudrilus and Hyperio-drilus. Moreover, a slight swelling of the sperm-duct just after it escapes from the funuel suggests a rudiment of the large chamber into which the sperm-duct of such' genera as Eudrilus, Teleudrilus, and Hgperiodrilus expands in the same region. This fact brings closer together the two divisions of the Eudrilida?. It may be also pointed out that in being thus turned rouud the sperm-duct funnels correspond more accurately with the oviducal funnels than they do in some worms. (5) Contributions to our Knowledge of the Genus Grordiodrilus. This genus was founded ten years ago by myself \ aud five species of it were described, to which a sixth from East Africa was subsequently added ~. Since that period the genus has not received attention at the hands of any naturalist, though the genus as such has been universally accepted. In the present communication I have some further facts to add to what is known about Gordiodrilus, and the material upon which these observations were made necessitates the creation of one new species. This material was collected in the neighbourhood of Lagos on the west coast of Africa by the late Mr. Alvan Millson. I have examined three examples of Gordiodrilus, which seem to be referable to two distinct species. A fourth worm, though, so far as could be judged, clearly a member of the same geuus, was not sufficiently mature to be placed with certainty in its proper species. Indeed none of the species appeared to be quite fully mature. The nearest approach to complete sexual maturity was shown by the one individual which I consider to represent a new species, for which I propose the name of GORDIODRILUS PAPILLATUS, n. sp. ()f this distinctly new form of Gordiodrilus (text-fig. 88, p. 359) I have had, as already stated, but a single example, nearly if not fully mature. It is a long slender worm like all the members of the genus, and its marked tenuity is more suggestive of Gordiodrilus tenuis than of any other species. It has, moreover, as will be seen in the sequel, other points of likeness to that, the most anomalous species of the genus. The transparency of the body-walls is apparent even in the spirit-preserved individual, and the sperm-sacs show7 through the delicate body-wall quite plainly. This is also a feature of 67. tenuis. 1 " O n a new Genus of Oligochajta comprising five new Species belonging to the Family Ocnerodrilidse," Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (6) x. p. 74. 2 F. E. Beddard, " A Contribution to our Knowlodge of the Oligochajta of tropical Eastern Africa," Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci. (n. s.) xxxvi. p. 252. |