OCR Text |
Show 1900.] EARTHWORMS OF THE GENUS AMYNTAS. 631 imparicystis) agrees with A. jampeanus, as described by Benham, in size: the extremes are different, viz. 130 & 420 mm.; but the following measurements unite these extremes to some extent:-170, 220 of halmaherce, and 370, 280, 240, & 225 of jampeanus. The genital papillae differ enormously in the varieties of halmaherce: in one there are but a single pair on xvii., at the other extreme we have something like twelve pairs in the neighbourhood of the spermathecal orifices and eleven pairs posteriorly. From this to A. jampeanus with no papillae is not a wide jump ; and it must be remembered that Benham described only three examples of the species. In any case P. bonthainensis has rows of three such papillae ou xvii., xix., xx. The number of setae is certainly smaller in the typical halmaherce from what is found in the typical jampeanus, i. e. 80 on xxv. to 130 on the same segment. But this discrepancy is reduced in significance by Dr. Michaelsen's description of a variety of jampeanus in which that segment had but 86. To this and to another variety the names of tigrina and fumigata were given by Michaelsen. In all of these forms the male pores are more closely approximated than is the rule in Amgntas. A difference shown by digitata is the " digitate" condition of the caeca. But this is shown to nearly the same extent in halmaherce. In the former, again, the spermiducal glands are small, and actually confined to the xviiith segment. W e find, bow-ever, here again a series of stages : in specimens of bonthainensis examined by Michaelsen those glands only occupied two segments; the rule for the species, as it appears, is for them to fill three segments. It would seem at first sight more unreasonable to include the small species A. purpureus. The species is as small as 72 m m . in length, which contrasts with the 420 m m . of A. jampeanus. But the largest individual of purpurea described by Dr. Benham measures 95 mm., which is after all not so great a difference from the smallest of halmaherce. I include it in the present form in agreement with Dr. Michaelsen, who however did not actually place the name as a synonym of the rest. The male pores are close together as in the other varieties. Tbe setae are however fewer, not more than 70 upon the xxvth segment. That the diverticulum of the spermatheca is straight and not coiled does not appear to me to be at all a valid distinction. 48. Amyntas aspergillum Perrier. Perichceta aspergillum, Perrier, Nouv. Arch. Mus. Paris, viii. p. 11H. Perichceta aspergillum, Bosa, Ann. k.-k. Holm. Wien, vi. p. 403. Amgntas aspergillum, Michaelsen, Jahrb. Hamb. wiss. Anst. xvi. p. 10. Perichceta takatorii, Goto & Hatai, Ann. Zool. Japon. ii. p. 76. Megascolex aspergillum, Vaillant, Anneles, 1889, p. 76. 180-375 mm., 150 segments. Setae 48 on v., 97 on xxvi. Setae ornamented, ventral larger than dorsal on many segments. Male pores surrounded by ten papillary pores; spermathecal apertures |