8G Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria. 



This animal, together with the other planarians, is very 

 destructive to insect life. It lives under logs with the 

 curious little crustacean 'hopper,' and with various species of 

 coleoptera and myriapoda, and the empty cases of these forms 

 testifies to its voracity. I have watched a Geo2)lana spenceri 

 catch and eat a beetle ; the latter inadvertently walked over 

 the worm, and immediately stuck to its slime, then despite 

 its wriggles, the planarian, with comparative speed, wrapped 

 its body round the beetle which was soon enclosed in a 

 slimy mess, and incapable of moving. Then the proboscis 

 w^as inserted between the joints of the external skeleton, and 

 the planarian fed at leisure. 



Geopkuia mediolineata (Fig. 15). — Of this species, which 

 is common in parts, we only found one specimen, despite the 

 fact that between us we upturned hundreds of logs, and 

 searched diligently beneath the bark of many gum trees. 

 This species is very variable. In its typical form, it has a 

 single median stripe, with indications at the extremities of 

 the body of two lateral stripes. Sometimes, according to 

 Mr. Dendy, these may be continuous along the body, 

 sometimes they may be wanting, and even the median stripe 

 but faintly present. In our specimen, the median and two 

 lateral ones are well marked, and in addition, there are faint 

 indications of two additional lateral stripes. 



Geoplaiia dendyi, sp. n. (Figs. 1,2, 3, 4, and 5). — Body 

 long and narrow ; greatest length when crawling, (J inches ; 

 width, I inch. When living and at rest, triangular iu 

 section, with a prominent mid dorsal ridge (Fig. 1a), and 

 always lies in the form of a coil. The opening into the peri- 

 pharyngeal chamber, in a spirit specimen measuring 2h inches 

 in length, was at 1| inches from the anterior extremity. 

 The genital aperture lies half w^ay between the peri- 

 pharyngeal 0]:)ening and the posterior extremity. Ground 

 colour of the dorsal surface varies from dark to light 

 green,* and at the anterior extremity (Figs. 2 and 4) merges 

 into blue, and this into the orange-coloured tip. Two very 

 light yellow bands ])ass along the whole length of the dorsal 

 surface, separated from each other by only a thin, but 

 distinctly marked, line of dark body colour. The sides of 

 the body dorsally are covered with light spots absent 



• In three fully grown specimens, unfortunately not preseryed, the body 

 colour was of a bright cerulean blue, and the same is true of one smaU 

 young specimen. The two light stripes on the dor.sal surface, and the 

 triangular shape of the body, distinguish these from G. cerulea. 



