678 EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



the period of incubation. The young, when hatched, adhere in a group 

 to the posterior part of the lower surface of the body of the parent by 

 means of their posterior suckers, and before quitting the parent usually 

 present the essential characters, and often nearly the pattern of color of 

 the adult, though paler. 



Section A. — Ocelli 2, separate or confluent. 

 Subsection a. — Back smooth. 



Clepsine parasitica Diesing. 



Hirudo lyarasUica Say, Major Long's Second Expedition to the Source of Saint 



Peter's River, Lake Winnepeek, &c., vol. ii, p. 266, 1824. 

 Clepsine parasitica Diesing, Systema Helmiuthum, vol. i, p. 450, 1850 ; Verrill, op. 



cit., vol. iii, p. 128, 1872. 



This species is one of the largest and most conspicuously colored of 

 the genus. 



Body smooth, but distinctly annulated, much depressed, broad, taper- 

 ing anteriorly to the obtusely rounded head, broad and emarginate pos- 

 teriorly, with a broad, round, posterior suck er or acetabulum, about half 

 of which is exposed behind the end of the body. Length, in extension, 

 3 inches ; greatest breadth 0.3 to 0.5 of an inch, acco rding to the de- 

 gree of extension. Ocelli usually united into one inconspicuous spot, 

 placed near the anterior margin of the head ; two or three other minute 

 black spots, somewhat resembling ocelli, sometimes occur along the 

 margins of the head anteriorly. 



Upper surface variegated with green, yellow, and brown ; the ground-' 

 color is usually dark greenish brown, with a broad median vitta of pale 

 greenish yellow, which at intervals expands into several large irregular 

 spots ; unequal, oval, and rounded spots are also irregularly scattered 

 over the back. The entire margin is surrounded by a series of alter- 

 nating square spots of dark green and yellow. Lower surface longitu- 

 dinally striped with numerous purplish brown and black lines; the mar- 

 gin spotted like that of the upper side. 



West River, near New Haven, Connecticut, on the lower side of float- 

 ing wood, and at Norway, Maine — A. E. Verrill ; frequent in the lakes 

 of the Northwestern States, adhering to the sternum of tortoises — Say 



Clepsine picta Verrill. 



Op. cit., vol. iii, p. 128, 1872. 

 Body smooth, much depressed, broad posteriorly, somewhat tajiering 

 anteriorly, about 2.50 inches long in extension, varying in greatest 

 breadth from 0.25 to 0.30 of an inch. Acetabulum large, rounded. Ocelli 

 two, close together, and sometimes confluent, surrounded by a triangu- 

 lar white area, which extends backward. Color of upper surface, dark 

 brownish green, finely variegated with orange; toward the margins the 

 green becomes brighter ; a row of semicircular orange spots, centered 

 with flesh-color or white, extends along each margin. Small, distant, 



