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XXXI. Defcriptions of Three New Species of Hirudo, By tbe Reverend 
William Kirby, A. L. S. With an additional Note by G. Shaw, M. D, 
F. R. S. and F. L. S. 
Read May 7, 1793. 
EING defirous of adding my mite to the treafures of the 
Linnean Society, I take the liberty of offering a defcription 
of three fpecies of Hirudo, which appear to me to be non-defcript, 
I. HIRUDO ALBA. 
H. depreffa alba interaneis fufcis ramofis, margine crifpante, extre- 
mitate acutiufcula. 
Defeription.—The H. alba is a fpecies off fingular beauty. Its 
colour is a moft delicate white, which is interrupted by the ele- 
gant ramifications of the vifcera, or interanea as Linnæus has 
termed them. 
* Thefe have the appearance of fome of the moft beautiful 
fuci. They begin a little behind the eyes (of which there are 
only two) in a point, and, proceeding as it were from a common 
rachis, grow gradually wider and wider till they arrive at the ovary 
where the rachis ends; but the ramifications parting off on each 
* This elegant appearance of the vifcera is loft when the worm is deprived of its proper 
nourifhment. It then becomes entirely white. 
fide 
