together at their attachment to the anterior septum of xiii. There are two pairs of spermathecae, a pair in viii and a pair in ix. Each is in the form of a large, thin-walled, ovoidal sac with a small pyriform diverticulum opening into the anterior aspect of its duct. (Plate 11, fig. 3.) The prostates are simple, unbranched, tubular organs lying ventral to the intestine, as is typical of the New Zealand species of Megascolides (Tokea). Each prostate arises from a narrow muscular duct in xviii. The left prostate is coiled in the form of a reversed S, terminating in xx, and the right prostate extends posteriorly from xviii through xix and xx into xxi, where it curves sharply towards the dorsal aspect of the intestine and terminates. There are two pairs of small racemose vesiculae seminales, a pair in xi and a pair in xii. Segments ix and × contain a mass of loosely packed sperm cells.

Slender micronephridial tubules occur in each segment except the first.

The species is easily distinguishable from other species of Megascolides. No other species has cuplike depressions surrounding the prostatic pores and the form of the ovaries is a diagnostic character found in no other species of the genus.

Megascolides parvus n.sp. (Plate 12, figs. 1–3)

A single specimen of this small species was collected from a small remnant of native forest (kahikatea, tawa, nikau) on a hillside three miles north-west of Hick's Bay, beside the Hick's Bay-Opotiki road. It is 26·5 mm. in length and 3·5 mm. in diameter and has 72 segments It is reddish-brown dorsally, paler ventrally, and has a buff clitellum surrounding xiv–xvii (four segments).

The prostomium is epilobous, without a posterior groove. There are eight chaetae on each segment. On xxiv their arrangement is as follows: ab = 1·25 mm.; cd = 1·75 mm.; aa = 1 5 mm.; bc = 1·75 mm.; dd = 2·25 mm.

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There are three pairs of spermathecal pores, a pair in each of the intersegmental grooves 6/7, 7/8 and 8/9, one on each side slightly medial to the line of chaeta a in each of the grooves. The female pores are on xiv, one on each side, very close to the ventral midline and close to the anterior margin of the segment. The male pores are on xviii, one on each side, in line with chaeta a of the adjacent segments. Each pore opens on the apex of a low, rounded papilla. There is an unpaired tuberculum pubertatis, taking the form of a tumid ridge, extending across the ventral midline in the intersegmental groove 19/20 from the line of chaeta a on one side to the same line on the other side and a pair of small oval tubercula on xviii, one on each side, posterior to the male papilla of the same side. I could find no dorsal pores.