222 Transactions. — Zoology. 



Art. XXIV. — Notes on Neic Zealand Land Planar ians : 



Part IV. 



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

 the Canterbury College, University of New Zealand. 



[Read before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, 27th February, 



1901.] 



The last part of these notes was read before this Institute 

 more than four years ago, and in the interval a considerable 

 amount of valuable material has accumulated in my hands. 

 I am indebted to the kindness of various correspondents, 

 whose names are mentioned in the sequel, for specimens from 

 many parts of New Zealand, and I have myself been able to 

 make small collections in the neighbourhood of Jackson's, on 

 the West Coast Road (Westlaud), in the beginning of 1898 ; in 

 the neighbourhood of Lake Te Auau in the early part of 1900 ; 

 and on Chatham Island in January, 1901. While only seven 

 new species are proposed in this communication, it has been 

 found necessary to describe no less than eight new varieties of 

 Geoplana graffii. The wide distribution of this species and 

 the manner in which it tends to produce slight local varieties, 

 of restricted range, are extremely interesting, though at the 

 same time not a little perplexing to the systematise In addi- 

 tion to these varieties, I have to record the occurrence of 

 another common Australian species {Geoplana munda) in the 

 South Island of New Zealand, and to record new localities for 

 various species previously described. 



It might have been expected that the Land Planarian 

 fauna of Chatham Island would show considerable differences 

 from that of the mainland. This expectation, however, was 

 not fulfilled. Only four species were met with in the limited 

 time at my disposal. These include the ubiquitous Geoplana 

 graffii and a well-marked local variety of the same (var. 

 wharekauriensis) , the almost equally ubiquitous Geoplana sicb- 

 quadrangulata, a new but not very strikingly characterized 

 species which I have named G. latero-punctata, and a hitherto 

 undescribed and very distinct species which I have termed 

 G. exulans, believing it to be probably an emigrant from New 

 Zealand, a single specimen having been collected in the North 

 Island by Mr. R. M. Laing. It is well known that a south- 

 ward current from the North Island of New Zealand carries 

 logs of timber and other debris — such as kauri-gum and 

 pumice-stone — to the shores of Chatham Island, and this may 

 well account for the distribution of Geoplana exulans. Thus, 



