Dendy. — On a Neiv Zealand Fresh-water Leech. 103 



Each external aperture appears to be eight annuli or four 

 somites behind the corresponding internal funnel. Of course, 

 it is quite possible that some mistake has been made here, but 

 the coincidence of the numbers on both sides of the animal 

 (investigated by longitudinal sections) is very remarkable. It 

 may be that the external apertures have been overlooked in 

 the anterior four pairs of nephridia and the internal portions 

 in the posterior four pairs, and perhaps this is the most likely 

 explanation. If it be so, then we have indications of eleven 

 pairs of nephridia. 



Reproductive Organs. — There are normally six pairs of 

 testes, opposite annuli 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, and 34, but they 

 are not always regular, and may even differ in arrangement 

 on the two sides of the same animal. The testes lie between 

 and below the diverticula of the crop, and are vertically com- 

 pressed from in front backwards, so that in the adult animal 

 they form flattened plates. The vasa deferentia in the adult 

 animal are very long and coiled. Each commences in front 

 of the testes amongst the copious glands at the sides of the 

 pharynx, and, passing backwards, coils about, finally turning 

 forwards and inwards to meet its fellow of the opposite side 

 at the male genital aperture, each duct ending in a con- 

 spicuous round swelling. 



The ovaries are contained in two elongated sacs which 

 pass gradually into the oviducts, the latter uniting together in 

 the middle line just behind the point of union of the vasa 

 deferentia. In the young animal the two ovaries and their 

 ducts lie tranversely across the body in the same straight 

 line. In older animals they turn backwards, extending about 

 as far as the fifth division of the crop and then turning aside. 



[Postscript. — A copy of this paper, w T ith illustrations, was 

 sent to the Melbourne meeting of the Australasian Associa- 

 tion for the Advancement of Science in January, 1900, but 

 want of funds has prevented its publication. Meanwhile a 

 paper has appeared, by J. P. Moore,* describing a biannulate 

 Glossiphonid from North Carolina, for which he proposes the 

 new genus Microbdella. Microbdella biannulata, Moore, very 

 closely resembles our species, and its discovery in America 

 adds greatly to the interest attaching to the New Zealand 

 form, which is, however, evidently specifically distinct. It 

 appears! that Oka, in 1895, had already described a biannu- 

 late leech, but this was an Ichthyobdellid belonging to the 

 genus Ozobranchus.] 



* " A Description of Microbdella biannulata, with Especial Regard to 

 the Constitution of the Leech Somite " (" Proceedings of the Academy 

 of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia," 1900). 



f Compare Moore, " Note on Oka's Biannulate Leech " (" Zoologischer 

 ADzeiger," 3rd September, 1900). 



