Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 October 2009
The group of primitive Annelids Dinophilus comprises some eight or nine species. They are remarkable for the fact that some show a well marked sexual dimorphism, in which the male is rudimentary, without any mouth or digestive tract, while in others the sexes are the same size and exhibit no signs of this dimorphism. The group as a class, therefore, is readily divisible into two subdivisions, in one of which all the species are sexually dimorphic, unpigmented, while in the other they are highly pigmented, a bright red, and are sexually monomorphic. The former may be called the Leu-codinophilidae, while the latter may be called the Erythrodinophilidae.