Proceedings of 

 the United States 

 National Museum 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION • WASHINGTON, D.C. 



Volume 124 1968 Number 3638 



North American Triclad Turbellaria, 17: 

 Freshwater Planarians From Lake Tahoe * 



By Masaharu Kawakatsu 



The present paper is concerned with the taxonomy and chorology of 

 two freshwater planarians that occur in Lake Tahoe in the Sierra 

 Nevada Mountains of California and Nevada. Bottom samples of 

 planarians were collected in 1962 and 1963 during the California- 

 Nevada Tahoe Fisheries Study made by the staffs of the California 

 Fish and Game Department and the Nevada Fish and Game 

 Commission. 



According to communications from Mr. Ted C. Frantz, Lake Tahoe 

 Fisheries Manager, planarians were taken with a 6-inch Ekman dredge 

 in depths of less than 500 feet and with a 9-inch modified Ekman 

 dredge from 600 to 1640 feet. Planarians collected were first relaxed 

 in epsom salts, then fixed on the spot in 99 percent isopropyl alcohol. 

 Forty vials of specimens were obtained (22 vials of the 1962 material 

 and 18 vials of the 1963 material). The collection consists of about 250 

 specimens and includes two species. Examination with a binocular 

 microscope shows that a considerable number of the planarians were 

 in a sexually mature state. 



The first pigmented planariid species in the material is a new sub- 

 species of Phagocata nivea Kenk, 1953, a species hitherto known only 



1 Continuation of a series by L. H. Hyman (see "References"). 



2 Biological Laboratory, Fuji Women's College, Sapporo (Hokkaid6), Japan. 



