CH. l] LAND PLAXARIAXS OF THE EAST. 55 



main groups of these worms ; the Rhynchodemidae, with 

 two eyes, the Geoplanidas with many eyes and the 

 Bipaliidse with four eyes and a hammer-shaped head. 

 Bipalium, with the exception of the probably accidentally 

 imported B. keweme, already referred to, is confined to 

 China, Borneo, Bengal, Ceylon and the Oriental region 

 generally. Geoplana is Australian, S. African, Japanese, 

 New Zealand, South American; and recently two species 

 have been described among the rich material collected by 

 Dr Max Weber in the Dutch East Indies. Curiously 



V 



enough that naturalist, so Dr Loman 1 tells us, was quite 

 unable to discover any land Planarians of any kind in the 

 island of Celebes, although he searched for them with 

 great care. Cotyloplana, also belonging to the same divi- 

 sion of the genus, is confined to Lord Howe Island, whence 

 it was brought by Prof. Spencer. The genus Coeloplana 

 of Moseley is included by recent writers in Geoplana. A 

 species of Geoplana was described by the late Dr Gulliver 

 from the island of Rodriguez. In all probability this 

 genus of such wide range will bear splitting up. But in 

 the meantime Prof, von Graff notes that it is mainly 

 developed in South America. Not less than 68 of the 125 

 species known to Dr v. Graff are inhabitants of the conti- 

 nent of South America. Rhynchodenms has also a wide 

 range. It is met with in Europe, at the Cape of Good 

 Hope, in Australia, in North and South America, Ceylon, 

 Samoa, and the Dutch East Indies. Other genera are the 

 European Geodesmus, Microplana described by Vejdovsky 

 from dung hills, Geobia subterranea of Brazil which as its 



1 Zoolog. Ergebn. Max Webers Reise. 



