72 
Note on the Occurrence of the Land Planaria (Planaria terrestris ) 
in the Neighbourhood of Bath. By the Rev. LEONARD BLOME- 
FIELD, M.A., F.L.S., &c., President. 
(Read February 11th, 1874.) 
This animal, which henceforth may be included in the Bath 
Fauna, though small and insignificant in appearance, is of much 
interest from its heing the only species of Land Planaria found 
in West Europe, so far as at present known. It was first dis- 
covered by Muller, in Denmark, and described by him in his 
“ Vermium Terrestrium et Fluviatilium Historia,” published in 
1774. Though apparently common in this country it had been 
entirely overlooked by British Naturalists previous to 1846, when 
it was found by myself in damp woods in Cambridgeshire, and 
some account of it published in my “ Observations in Natural 
History.”* Since then it has been found in Kent by Sir John 
Lubbock, who, not aware of my notice of it, brought it forward as 
new to Britain in a communication to the Linnean Society, in 
1868.+ It has been also found in Shropshire by Mr. Houghton. 
To Dr. Bird we are indebted for the knowledge of its being an 
inhabitant of the Bath district. It was during the time of his 
being engaged in making a collection of the land shells of this 
neighbourhood for the Local Museum at the Institution, that 
I drew the attention of that active member of our Club to 
this animal, thinking it probable it might occur about Bath 
in similar situations to those in which I had met with it 
in the Eastern counties, and such proved to be the case ; for he 
yery soon afterwards brought me several specimens obtained in 
woods on Lansdown and in other localities. It secretes itself 
under stones and rotten wood, on which last it was thought by 
Sir John Lubbock to feed. But I am more inclined myself to 
* Under the name of Ground Fluke, p. 315. 
+ Journ. Linn, Soc. (Zool.), vol. 10, p. 193. 
