574 AUSTRALIAN LAND PLANARIANS, 



surmise as to the above being the normal mode of laying is 

 correct. 



The period of incubation for the egg-capsule after laying- 

 appears to be very variable. I have seen some hatch after being 

 laid a few days only, while others have remained for seven to 

 eight weeks in the vivarium before the young emerged. 



(b). Collection and preservation. — When collecting land plana- 

 rians they are best put into small tin boxes or wide-mouthed 

 bottles, the covers or corks of which fit fairly close, but are 

 readily removed. These should be loosely filled with fresh leaves 

 such as those of docks, dandelions, fresh moss or such like, but 

 anything wet, or aromatic leaves, should be avoided In such 

 boxes of leaves they will live for a considerable time in cool 

 weather, and I have so carried them alive from New Zealand to 

 Sydney and thence to Melbourne, and have received by post in 

 Sydney from friends in Tasmania, Queensland, Victoria, and 

 South Australia. 



Though planarians can be fairly well preserved by putting 

 them direct into ordinary methylated spirit, they are displayed 

 to much greater advantage when prepared in the manner 

 described below. When simply placed in spirit the slime with 

 which their bodies are invested is at once coagulated, forming a 

 dense opaque coating which more or less hides the bands and 

 markings upon which we largely depend for the differentiation 

 of species, besides usually concealing the eyes. In addition the 

 animals are more or less twisted and distorted, making subsequent 

 study difficult. 



In preserving such soft-bodied creatures it is necessary to make 

 use of a fluid medium, as they cannot be dried without destroying- 

 all recognisable characters. 



I have made numerous experiments on the preservation of 

 land planarians, but have not found any method to give better 

 results than that described in my former paper and given in 

 substance below. 



