LAND PLANARIANS IN THE UNITED STATES* 



Leidy, at a meeting of the Philadelphia Academy of 

 Science, August 12, 1851, presented a paper in which he 

 described the first and only species of land planarian (ex- 

 cluding Placocephalus kewensis, an introduced form living 

 in hot houses) which has thus far been found in the 

 United States. To this he gave the name Planaria sylvat- 

 ica. The five specimens he obtained were collected under 

 flower pots, boxes, etc., in gardens at Philadelphia, and 

 under pieces of bark, and old logs in the woods bordering 

 Wissahicon Creek. On October 7 of the same year, after 

 a more critical study of the specimens, he proposed a new 

 genus for their reception, the name thus becoming Rhyn- 

 chodemus sylvaticus. At a meeting of the society on 

 August 24, 18 58, he again referred to the subject stating 

 that since 18 51 he had found one specimen in the western 

 part of Pennsylvania on Broad Top Mountain (August, 

 1857) as well as several specimens at Newport (July, 

 1858). Since this time no further observations concern- 

 ing the collection of additional land planarians in the 

 United States have appeared. 



Consequently the occurrence of two distinct species of 

 Khynchodemus at Gambier, Ohio, is of considerable inter- 

 est. The first form which may prove identical with the 

 examples procured by Leidy at Philadelphia, was found 

 on the partially decayed stem of a Virginia creeper, July 

 9, 1904, near Bexley Hall. Five specimens were obtained, 

 while additional representatives have been found at the 

 same place each succeeding summer. During November 

 of the past year a single specimen was also taken under a 

 stone in a meadow some three miles south of the preceding 

 locality. The specimens mentioned agree closely with 

 the description given by Leidy as well as with his drawing 

 of the Philadelphia forms published in Girard's paper on 



•^Reprinted from Science, N. S., vol. 25, pp. 732-733. 



