244 CHARLES BADHAM 



one under clod of earth coiled knot-like, bright red in colour 

 darkening to the posterior end ; second specimen under a 

 stone. A third specimen found in earth on dislodging a buried 

 log, darker in colour, and probably belongs to the same species 

 as a fourth specimen, a much larger leech and slaty black in 

 colour. On following day found two more land leeches similar 

 to the first. 



I have laid stress on this description, for the next year Weber 

 (1914), describing certain leeches from Columbia as ' Centro- 

 pygusjoseensis'jfor the first time mentions their blood-red 

 colour. 



The specimens collected by Professor Hill consist of five small 

 and one larger leech. The former measure from 40 to 80 mm. 

 long by 3 to 3-5 mm. in diameter — the latter single specimen 

 is 180 mm. long by 7 mm. diameter. 



Historical. 



The genus Centropygus was first established by Grube 

 in 1859 to contain a leech which Blanchard thinks came from 

 San Jose near Panama, the generic name being given because 

 the anus was erroneously supposed to open in the centre of the 

 posterior sucker. In 1 871 Grube described the genus C y c 1 i c o - 

 bdella in which he placed C. lumbricoides, a leech from 

 Desterro. 



Blanchard, who has examined these two types, found them 

 to belong to the same species, and in this species placed also 

 a leech described by him as Nephelis tergestina, and 

 gave the generic name Liostomum priority. 



Later, he restored the name Centropygus to the genus 

 which contains C. joseensis from Trinidad, and another 

 characterized by its blood-red colour described by Kennel 

 in 1886 as C. coccinea, the colouring of C. joseensis 

 being still unrecorded. 



Kennel (1886) gave an excellent account of this species, and 

 separated it from C. lumbricoides on certain anatomical 

 details which I will mention later. 



Weber (1914) was the first to record the colour of living 

 specimens of C . joseensis, and for want of better informa- 



