Dendy. — On New Zealand Land Planarians. 223 



out of four species found on Chatham Island only one is 

 not already known from the mainland of New Zealand, 

 a result affording a striking contrast to that obtained by 

 Whitelegge and Spencer in the case of Lord Howe Island, 

 whose Pianarian fauna is strikingly peculiar both as com- 

 pared with that of New Zealand and that of Australia. 



Since the appearance of the last part of these notes an 

 event of great interest to zoologists has taken place, in the 

 publication of Professor von Graff's magnificent monograph of 

 the Land Planarians.* This great work deals with the Land 

 Planarians, so far as yet known, of the whole world, and 

 brings our knowledge completely up to date. At some future 

 time it will be necessary to revise the nomenclature of the 

 New Zealand species in the light of Professor von Graff's 

 results — thus, for example, Geoplana mar ice will probably fall 

 in von Graff's new genus Artioposthia — but for the present 

 the necessary anatomical and microscopical investigations 

 must be postponed. It appears to me that the proper way in 

 which to work up our local Pianarian fauna is first to get 

 together as complete a collection as possible from all parts of 

 the country, to classify and describe these as species and 

 varieties in accordance with external characters (laying special 

 stress upon the colours of the living animal), and ultimately to 

 work out the internal anatomy of as many species as possible 

 before attempting the final arrangement in genera. In the 

 meanwhile we must refer all the Geoplanidce found in New 

 Zealand to the old genus Geoplana. 



There must be a large number of New Zealand species of 

 Land Planarians still unknown, and it is of great importance 

 that these should be described before the destruction of our 

 primeval forests has made the work impossible. I therefore 

 again venture to appeal to local naturalists and collectors for 

 assistance in this matter, and to remind them that instructions 

 for collecting and packing specimens will be found in the first 

 part of these notes, t 



For specimens described in the present contribution I have 

 to thank especially Captain Hutton, Professor Benham, Mr. 

 W. T. Locke Travers, Mr. E. M. Laing, Mr. W. W. Smith, 

 Mr. H. Suter, and Mr. George Howes. 



Geoplana sanguinea, Moseley. 



Peel Forest. — March-April, 1898. One specimen; coll., 

 W. W. Smith, Esq. This specimen agrees exactly with the 

 Australian form, so far as I can tell. In spirit it is about 

 77 mm. long and 6 mm. in greatest breadth, with the genital 



* "Monographie der Turbellarien," ii., Tricladida Terricola (Land- 

 planarien). Leipzig, 1899 (with an atlas of fifty-eight plates). 



t "Transactions o the New Zealand Institute," vol. xxvii., p. 177. 



