244 REMARKS ON AN INTRODUCED SPECIES OF LAND-PLANARIAN, 



REMARKS ON AN INTRODUCED SPECIES OF LAND- 

 PLANARIAN APPARENTLY BIPALIUM KEWENSE, 

 MOSELEY. 



By J. J. Fletcher, M.A., B.Sc. 



In 1878 Mr. Moseley described a species of Land-Planarian 

 ( Bipalium Kevjense) from a specimen found in one of the hot- 

 houses at Kew Gardens(l). Recently Professor Bell has recorded 

 his observations on another specimen, apparently of the same 

 species, found among broken flower-pots in a garden in Sussex ; 

 he also gives a nuniber of good figures of the animal (2). 



The same species, seemingly, has become acclimatised in Sydney 

 and its environs, and, probably finding the climate more like that 

 of its native habitat, instead of appearing in occasional ones or 

 twos it has increased so abundantly that, during the warm rains 

 of the last few weeks, numbers made their appearance in gardens, 

 on verandahs, and even on the public footpaths, in quite a 

 remarkable manner. During the last five weeks I have myself 

 seen about thirty specimens, and I have heard of quite as many 

 others. 



As in the case of the English specimens so with Sydney ones,, 

 nothing is known of their original habitat, or of the exact 

 circumstances under which they came into the country, but there 

 can be little doubt that they have been brought with foreign plants 

 to gardens and nurseries, whence they have afterwards strayed, or 

 have been distributed. There can also be little doubt that here 

 the species has become thoroughly well-established, but whether 

 Sydney gardens have been stocked from Kew Gardens, or vice 

 versa, or whether both have been directly stocked from the 

 original habitat, it is needless to speculate, since as in the case 



(1) Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. Vol. I, ser. 5, 1878, p. 238. 



(2) P. Z. S. 1886, p. 166, pi. 18. 



