76 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. iob 



Section SCHEMATOMMATA 



Family Leptoplanidae Stimpson, 1857 



Genus Euplana Girard, 1893 



Euplana gigas (Schmarda), 1859 



Figure 4,a,6 



Leptoplana gigas Schmarda, 1859, p. 17. 

 Leptoplana subviridis Plehn, 1896, p. 330. 

 Leptoplana pardalis Laidlaw, 1902, p. 287. 

 Discoplana subviridis Bock, 1913, p. 220. 

 Discoplana gigas Stummer-Traunfels, 1933, p. 3494. 

 Susakia badiomaculata Kato, 1934, p. 125. 



Material: A total of seven specimens in four different vials is 

 present in the material, collected during July and August 1951 by 

 A. H. Banner and D. W. Strasburg in Onotoa Atoll, GUbert Islands. 



Whole mount features: Despite the several descriptions and 

 figures of this species in the literature, it does not appear superfluous 

 to give a resume of the characters. This is a very large species; 

 the original specimen of Schmarda measured 140 mm. long when 

 extended, presumably alive, and even after preservation the specimen 

 is stated by Stummer-Traunfels, who reexamined Schm.arda's 

 material, to be 100 mm. in length. No subsequent describer has had 

 specimens of any such size; mostly they do not exceed 50 mm. in 

 length, preserved. The shape is obovate, broadest anteriorly and 

 gradually tapering to a bluntly pointed posterior end. The color 

 pattern is distinctive; on a white to buft' ground are evenly scattered 

 clusters of dark brown spots. Both the shape and the color pattern 

 are well represented in the colored figures of Laidlaw and Kato. 

 The original colored figure of Schmarda does not appear to me very 

 tjrpical m either respect. The largest of my specimens has more 

 spots than in any of the figures in the literature. These spots are not 

 evenly distributed but are much more thickly placed in the periphery 

 of the worm, giving this specimen a darker appearance than the 

 others. On the other hand, my smallest specimen appears white 

 without any dark dots. The eye arrangement is accurately repre- 

 sented by Meixner (1907), Stummer-Traunfels, and Kato. 



CopuLATORY apparatus: Sagittal sections have been made of 

 the copulatory apparatus of two specimens. Apparently there are 

 some small diff'erences in this apparatus in specimens from different 

 regions. Plehn's figure is highly schematic. Meixner and Stummer- 

 Traunfels figure only the male system and the latter found the 

 female system damaged in the Schmarda specimen. Consequently, 



