726 AUSTRALIAN HIRUDINEA, IV., 



The structures which I have identified as Entoprocta, have 

 been previously noted but misinterpreted by Macdonald as 

 spermatophores. Macdonald, in a description of some marine 

 leeches from the tropical region of the Pacific, remarks in con- 

 nection with a large black leech which he found on a species of 

 Myliobatis : " Attached to the body in a very irregular manner, 

 but chiefly at its fore part, were several of the double tubular 

 spermatophora shown in fig. 9. These curious bodies I have also 

 found on other marine Hirudinei, but always with some character- 

 istic differences. Fig. 6, for example, represents a small black 

 leech with white tubercles, referable, apparently, to the genus 

 Pontohdella, found on Rhinobdtis in the same seas; and fig. 7 is 

 its double-barrelled spermatophore, which is quite different from 

 tig. 9, though obviously of the same nature. Very little is 

 positively known of the generative processes of the marine leeches; 

 but the facts here mentioned may one day meet with a satis- 

 factory explanation."* Macdonald evidently found these 

 structures on Branchellio7i as well as on Pontobdella. I have 

 examined both these genera, but have never yet managed to 

 secure specimens on Branchelhon, although, no doubt, such do 

 exist on the latter genus as on Pontobdella, and according to 

 Macdonald's figures, it is quite possible that another species of 

 the genus exists in the Pacitic Ocean. I have examined quite 

 a number of specimens of Pontobdella australiensis, which is 

 undoubtedly the same species as that examined by Macdonald, 

 and found a large number of structures which apparently are 

 identical with those seen by Macdonald. 



On examining specimens of Pontobdella australiensis, attention 

 was drawn to a number of slender whitish bodies attached to the 

 anterior region of the body of the leech, and rendered conspicuous 

 by their abundance and colour. 



The papillte in this leech, as noted above, are very prominent 

 structures if the animal is not dilated or extended excessively; 

 and one might, at first, interpret these bodies as abnormally 



Trans. Linn. Soc. Zoology. Second Series. Vol ii. p.21 1(1877). 



