0)1 an Australian Land Nemertine. 87 



when we found dozens of specimens under fallen logs It is 

 a curious fact that on most carefully searching the same 

 locality only a few weeks later (May 13) 1 was unable to 

 find a single specimen. 



Mr. Fletcher* has lately recorded the occurrence of land 

 Nemertines also in Tasmania and New South Wales, but 

 it is somewhat doubtful whether they belong to tlie same 

 species as the Victorian specimens, though from the examina- 

 tion of the external characters which I have been kindly 

 permitted to make I am inclined to believe that they do. 



3. External Characters, Habits, and Methods of 

 Preparation. 



As it lies at rest, with the proboscis retracted, Geonemertes 

 australiensls has very much the appearance of a slug or a 

 small Planarian worm, and is very soft and slimy. When it 

 begins to crawl, which it readily does on being disturbed, 

 the body elongates until in large specimens it measures 

 about 40 mm. in length by 2o mm. in greatest breadth. The 

 anterior extremity is then seen to be rounded and j^erhaps 

 slightly swollen into a head, the posterior extremity 

 tapering gradually to a blunt point where the anus is 

 situated. The ventral surface of the body, on which the 

 animal crawls, is somewhat flattened. 



The colour of the living annual is chiefly yellow, varying 

 a good deal in shade, and lighter on the ventral than on the 

 dorsal surface. Sometimes it is a translucent, waxy j^ellow, 

 sometimes oiange, and sometimes more l)rownish. Figure 1 

 represents a specimen from near the Wood's Point Road, 

 painted from life. In this case the dorsal surface was 

 brownish yellow edged on either side by a nai-row band of 

 creamy white continuous with the cream}^ white ventral 

 surface. Usually there are no stripes but sometimes there is 

 a brown median dorsal band, and in a specimen from 

 Myrniong, which I take to belong to the same species, there 

 were two narrow stripes of a darker brownish tint down 

 each side of the mid dorsal line, the remainder of the dorsal 

 surface being of the usual yellow colour. Sometimes, in 

 large specimens, the sides of the body have a distinctly 

 mottled appearance, due to the large ova showing through 

 tlie skin. At the extreme anterior end of the body, on the 



* Loc. cit. 



