484 AUSTRALIAN HIRUDINEA, III., 



somite. Anteriorly each vas deferens passes into a densely con- 

 voluted whitish mass, epididymis, which is connected with a 

 large highly muscular sac, ovoid in shape, directed inwards and 

 forwards. As in H. mauiana, this corresponds to the ** ductus 

 ejaculatorius " of H. medicinalis. From each of these muscular 

 sacs a duct passes inwards at right angles to the long axis of the 

 body, and these ducts open as usually into the median globular 

 prostate, from which a long curv^ed penis-sac passes backwards 

 and afterwards forwards, to open at the male pore, behind the 

 sixth ganglion. This agrees in detail with that described by 

 Benham for //. mauiana. The female apparatus also agrees in 

 detail with that of H. mauiana, the two small ovarian sacs 

 leading by narrow oviducts into an albumen-gland connected 

 with a uterus, which passes forwards and ventrally into a vagina, 

 surrounded by distinct circular muscles, as described by Benham 

 for H. mauiana. 



Remarks. — If H. mauiana and L. australis are not to be 

 regarded as one and the same species, it cannot be denied that 

 they are very closely allied species; and the same interest in 

 their distribution obtains, whether one be regarded as a variety 

 of the other, or as a distinct species. Each form is a true endemic 

 representative in either country, in every possibility. The most 

 interesting point is bound up in the characteristic structure of 

 the genital organs, and this character may be possibly an anato- 

 mical feature to be found among those forms which Blanchard 

 would place in his genus Limnobdella, in contradistinction to 

 that to be found in Hirudo (in its narrow sense). 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



Apathy, 1888. — Sasswasser-Hirudineen. Ein systematischer Essay. Zool. 



Jahrb., Abth. f. Syst. Bd. ill. 

 Becker, 1859.— "On the Hirudo australis." Trans. Phil. Inst.- Victoria, 



iii., p. 36. 

 Benham, 1904. — "On a New Species of Leech (fl". antipodum).'" Trans. N.Z. 



Inst, xxxvi. p. 185. 

 1906. — " Two New Species of Leech in New Zealand." Op. cit. 



xxxix. 



