Land Planarians, Tasmania and S. Australia. 187 



brown) on this ground colour vary from those of the variety 

 adelaidensis (fig. A), thi-ough insensible gradations, to a form (D), 

 which is almost entirely devoid of markings, but has just a faint 

 rudiment of a median stripe, discontinuous, in the anterior half 

 of the body, with still fainter rudiments of paired stripes at the 

 extreme anterior end only, and faint traces of pale brownish 

 specks at the posterior end visible under a pocket lens. This 

 form (D) scarcely differs from the types of G. fietcheri first 

 described from Victoria (loc. cit.) 



The two other most conspicuous varieties are the ones labelled 

 C and E in the drawings. In C there is a distinct but narrow, 

 dark median stripe all down the body ; the paired stripes, 

 however, are present only at the extreme anterior tip. and there 

 are only a few brown specks, very inconspicuous, in the ground 

 colour at the posterior end. 



In E, on the other hand, the median sti-ipe is very thin and 

 discontinuous, almost obsolete, while the paired stripes are strong 

 and continuous all down the body, though evidently made up 

 each of a number of specks run together, and stronger in front 

 than behind. There are no distinct specks in the ground colour 

 outside the stripes. 



The variety represented in the drawing marked B is inter- 

 mediate between A and C, all the markings of A (= var. 

 adelaidensis) l)eing present but, with the exception of the median 

 stripe, fainter. In this variety adelaidensis (A and B) the dark- 

 brown specks are sometimes very abundant at the outer margins 

 of the body, indicating a tendency towards the formation of a 

 second, outer paired stripe (compare G. howitfi*) especially 

 marked at the anterior end. 



Perhaps in all cases there are more or less distinct traces of 

 five dark stripes, one median and four paired, running back from 

 the dark pinkish-brown anterior tip. (Possibly G. howitti may 

 ultimately have to be regarded merely as another variety of G. 

 fietcheri., with its sub- variety obsoleta.)\ 



During the period for which I kept the above-described 

 specimens of G. fietcheri and its varieties alive (3rd to 11th May), 



* Trans. Royal Soc. Victoria, 1891, p. 39, pi. iv., fig. 5. 

 t Proc. Royal Soc. Victoria, 1891, p. 37. 



