Dbndy. — On a New Zealand Land Nemertine. 191 



I had hoped to obtain some evidence as to the time of the 

 appearance of the extra legs from the examination of embryos, 

 but, although both the specimens which I dissected were 

 females, I could find no embryos in a sufficiently advanced 

 state of development to afford the required information. 



Had it not been for the well-known variability of certain 

 neotropical species in the number of their legs I should have 

 been inclined to regard the three specimens from Stratford as 

 specifically distinct. Under the circumstances, however, it 

 seems best to regard them as belonging to a local variety, and 

 I propose for this variety the name Peripatus novcs-zealandice, 

 var. suteri. 



Art. XIX. — Notes on a New Zealand Land Nemertine. 



By Arthur Dendy, D.Sc, Professor of Biology in the Can- 

 terbury College, University of New Zealand. 



[ Read before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, 5th September, 



1894.] 



The nemertines form, as is well known, a typically marine 

 group of animals, being abundant and widely distributed in 

 shallow seas. Very few species seem to have deserted their 

 marine habitat in favour of a terrestrial one, so that land 

 nemertines are exceedingly rare. Up to the present time, 

 indeed, only five species have been described — viz., Tetra- 

 stemma agricola, discovered on the "Challenger" Expedition, 

 and described by Dr. Von Willemoes-Suhm ; Tetrastemma 

 rodericanwn, discovered at the Island of Rodriguez by the 

 Transit of Venus Expedition, and described by Mr. Gulli- 

 ver ; Geonemertes palaensis, found by Professor Semper in the 

 Pelew Islands ; Geonemertes chalicophora, found by Professor 

 Von Graff in gardens in Germany, and probably introduced 

 there by human agency ; and lastly, Geonemertes australiensis, 

 discovered by myself in Victoria, and described with anatomi- 

 cal details and illustrations in the " Proceedings of the Royal 

 Society of Victoria" for 1891. 



Like the land planarians, to which they are in some 

 measure related, the land nemertines belong to the crypto- 

 zoic fauna, being found under fallen timber, stones, &c, and 

 probably only venturing from their hiding-places at night or 

 in very wet weather in search of prey. They are small, slimy 

 worms, closely resembling land planarians at first sight, but 

 readily distinguished by the sudden emission of a long, white 

 proboscis from the anterior extremity when the animal is 

 irritated. 



