Dendy. — On a Neiv Zealand Fresh-water Leech. 99 



Art. IV. — On a New Zealand Fresh-water Leech (Glossi- 

 phonia (Clepsine) novae-zealandiae, n. sp.). 



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

 Canterbury College ; and Margaret F. Olliver, M.A , 

 Senior Scholar in Zoology, New Zealand University. 



[Read before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, 4th July, 1900.] 



Introductory Bemarks. 

 The specimens upon which this communication is founded 

 were collected by Mr. Henry Suter, who discovered them 

 living attached to the underside of stones near the margin of 

 Lake Takapuna, in the North Island of New Zealand, in com- 

 pany with fresh-water Mollusca and sponges. Exceptional 

 interest attaches to this discovery because it is generally sup- 

 posed that leeches are absent from the land and fresh-water 

 fauna of New Zealand. Thus in Parker and Haswell's "Text- 

 book of Zoology " (vol. 1, p. 481) we find the statement, 

 " Hitherto no member of the class has been found in New 

 Zealand, with the exception of the marine Branchellion." 



It should be pointed out, however, that a land -leech 

 (Geobdella limbata) has been recorded from New Zealand. 

 The only literature upon this species which we have been 

 able to obtain is Moore's paper on the leeches of the United 

 States National Museum,* in wmich two specimens collected 

 by the United States Exploring Expedition are stated to have 

 come from New Zealand. It seems highly improbable that 

 so aggressive an animal as a land-leech sliould remain un- 

 known to the numerous local collectors who have explored 

 the New Zealand bush, and we prefer to believe that some 

 mistake has been made in the labelling of the two specimens 

 in the United States National Museum. 



Owing to the extremely small size of our species, the 

 irregularity of the annulation in front, and the absence of 

 any papillae or colour-markings on the integument, we have 

 found it impossible to determine the segmental arrangement 

 of the various organs with that exactness which has of late 

 years been customary with the describers of leeches. t 



Our observations have been made upon both living and 

 preserved specimens, and the internal anatomy has been in- 

 vestigated by means of transverse and longitudinal vertical 

 serial sections, as well as by dissection and the examination of 



* "Proceedings of the Unite} States National Museum," vol. xxi., 

 p. 563. 



t Compare Whitman, " The Segmental Sense-organs of the Leech," 

 American Naturalist, October, 1884; and " Description of Clepsine plana," 

 Journal of Morphology, vol. iv., No. 3, 1891. 



