214 Transactions. — Zoology. 



tvas, however, a severe frost in the night, and the animal was 

 dead and hquefying the next mormng.] 



Geoplana subquadrangulata, Dendy. 



This common species is represented in the Springburn dis- 

 trict by two varieties : — 



(a.) Has the three dark stripes on the dorsal surface as 

 usual, with abundant dark speckles between the median and 

 paired stripes. The lateral surfaces also have numerous dark 

 speckles, concentrated so as to form a discontinuous lateral 

 stripe. The ventral surface is without speckles. 



(b.) Is remarkable for the great breadth of the paired 

 dorsal stripes, which extend inwards until they are separated 

 from the median narrow stripe by only a very narrow band 

 of ground-colour. The ground-colour is very pale yellow, 

 the stripes dark-grey or olive-brown. The lateral surfaces 

 are slightly speckled with grey ; the ventral surface is not 

 speckled. 



Several specimens of each variety were met with. 



Geoplana rnariae, Dendy. 



This species, which was originally described from a single 

 specimen from near the Otira Gorge, was not uncommon 

 at Springburn. Its most striking characceristic is the shape 

 of the body in spirit — very thick, strongly convex on both 

 surfaces, and very blunt at both ends. Most, if not all, 

 of the Springburn specimens exhibit a paler band at the 

 junction of the dorsal and ventral surfaces. In my first 

 description I compared the shape of the body to that of 

 G. flctchcri, but this is a mistake, as it is really very chfferent, 

 especially in spirit. In the markedly posterior position of 

 the apertures, however, there is a real resemblance between 

 the two. 



Akt. XXIII. — Note on tJie Discovery of Living Specimens of 

 Geonemertes novae-z-ealandi®. 



By Aethur Dendy, D.Sc, F.L.S., Professor of Biology in 

 the Canterbury College, University of New Zealand. 



[Read before the Philosophical Instihite of Canterbury, 3rd July, 1895.] 



In the last volume of the "Transactions of the New Zealand 

 Institute"''' I described, under the name Geonemertes novce- 

 zealandi(z, the first specimens of a land nemertine ever re- 



* Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. xxvii., p. 192. 



