Dendy. — On New Zealand Land Planarians. 181 



patch on each side of the anterior end, and continued more 

 sparingly round the tip. 



The greater part of the dorsal surface is very dark purplish- 

 brown, or sometimes nearly black, in colour. Along the 

 median dorsal ridge is a narrow band of much paler brown, 

 which carries a pair of very narrow, and more or less irregular, 

 very pale greenish, bluish, or brownish stripes. The degree of 

 development of these two very pale and narrow stripes varies 

 much in different specimens, as also do their distinctness and 

 distance apart. They may even degenerate into irregular 

 marbling in the median dorsal band, and they appear to be 

 due to a local strengthening and running-together of the small 

 bluish specks mentioned below. Usually the lateral margins 

 of the dorsal surface are occupied each by a narrow band of 

 paler brown, but this is not always present. The whole 

 dorsal surface is flecked with small specks and dashes of pale 

 greenish-blue, clearly visible to the naked eye, and giving the 

 animal a very handsome appearance. 



The anterior extremity is dark-brown in -colour. The 

 ventral surface is somewhat paler brown than the dorsal, 

 with a still paler, ill-defined median band. It is flecked all 

 over with very minute specks of whitish or very pale blue, 

 evidently corresponding to the blue specks on the dorsal 

 surface, but more numerous, and smaller, being only just 

 visible to the naked eye. 



In spirit the dorsal surface is strongly convex and the 

 ventral flattened ; the posterior extremity is gradually sharp- 

 pointed, and the anterior rather abruptly narrowed towards 

 its horse-shoe-shaped termination. The peripharyngeal aper- 

 ture is about central, and the genital about half-way between 

 it and the posterior extremity. The colour of the dorsal 

 surface becomes dark-grey, flecked with minute whitish specks, 

 and with a narrow median band of pale yellowish-brown ; 

 usually also with narrow, pale margins. The ventral surface 

 appears paler grey, with a narrow median paler stripe. 



Localities. — Gardens in neighbourhood of Christchurch 

 (very common, lying on bare earth beneath wood, &c.) ; 

 Dunedin (coll., A. Hainilton, Esq.) ; Ashburton (coll., Messrs. 

 Maine and Fooks) ; Chatham Islands (coll., Major Gascoyne, 

 E.M.). 



Geoplana ccerulea, Moseley, var. 



Cmioplana ccerulea, Moseley, Quarterly Journal of Micro- 

 scopical Science, n.s., vol. xvii., p. 285 (1877). Geo- 

 plana ccerulea, Fletcher and Hamilton, Proc. Linn. 

 Soc. N.S.W., ser. ii., vol. 2, p. 361, pi. v., fig. 1 (1887). 

 Geoplana aerulea, Dendy, Trans. U.S. Victoria, vol. ii., 

 part 1. p. 70; part 2, p. 29; pi. iv., flg. 7 (1890-91). 



