Alimentary Canal. A strong muscular pharynx occupies the first four segments. An elongate, muscular-walled gizzard lies in v. The oesophagus extends from vi to xvii, and has two pairs of calciferous glands, a pair in xiv and a pair in xv. The intestine commences in xviii and has a typhlosole.

Vascular System. The dorsal blood vessel is paired posterior to v/vi, and the two vessels fuse at each septum. There are four pairs of dilated hearts, a pair each in segments × to xiii.

Reproductive System. There are two pairs of free lobate testes, a pair in × and a pair in xi, and a pair of lobate ovaries in xiii. Two pairs of spermathecae are present, a pair in viii and a pair in ix, each in the form of a rounded sac, with a complete ring of small rounded diverticula encircling its duct. (Plate 121, fig. 3.) Two pairs of extremely convoluted prostates are present, a pair in xvii and a pair in xix. Each prostate opens to the exterior by a narrow duct in its encircling segment. There is a single pair of racemose-vesiculae seminales in xi.

Very small micronephridial tubules are present in each segment except the first.

Hoplochaetina pallida n.sp. (Plate 122, figs. 1–3)

This is a large pink earthworm, common in the subsoil of uncultivated areas in the vicinity of Whangarei, and it resembles in gross form Octochaetus multiporus Beddard (1892). The specimen described was collected from Omu clay loam, at a depth of twelve inches, in a remnant of native forest beside the Whangarei-Dargaville road, one mile and a half west of Tangowahine. It is 200 mm. in length, has 157 segments, and a diameter of about 10 mm. When killed in alcohol it ejects a dirty white coelomic fluid, and the body becomes flaccid and difficult to handle.

The prostomium in tanylobous. The clitellum is buff in colour, completely surrounding xiv to xvi, and covering the dorsal and lateral surfaces of xvii. Chaetae are perichaetine in arrangement, and very numerous. They are more or less evenly spaced around the circumference of the segments except for a wide ventro-medial gap.

There are two pairs of spermathecal pores, at 7/8 and 8/9, situated ventro-laterally, 3 mm. from the ventral midline on each side. There is a single pair of female pores on the anterior aspect of xiv, adjacent to the ventral midline. They are so close together that they appear to the naked eye as a single pore. Two pairs of prostatic pores occur on prominent papillae, a pair on xvii and a pair on xix. The pores are situated 3·5 mm. from the ventral midline. A longitudinal groove joins the two prostatic pores on each side, and a male pore lies in each of these grooves, on xviii.

Nephridiopores are not visible.