ARTICLE III. — Additional Observations on the Victorian Land Planarians, 

 BY Arthur Dendy, D.Sc. (With Plate IV.) 



(Read June 12th, 1891.) 



Since my last paper " On the Victorian Land Planarians " was read before this 

 Society I have been able to collect a considerable amount of further information 

 concerning this interesting group of worms, and the present observations are intended 

 to bring our knowledge of the group up to date by describing species or varieties 

 hitherto unknown and especially by giving full details as to the variation in colour 

 and markings and as to the distribution within the colony of those species which 

 have already been described. 



In my previous memoir I recorded fifteen Victorian species ; this number has 

 now been brought up to twenty-two, the additional seven species being Gcoplana 

 dendyi, Spencer, G. frosti, Spencer, G. howitti, Dendy, G. ventropnnctata, Dendy, 

 all of which are new to science since I last wrote ; with G. snlphurea, Fletcher and 

 Hamilton, and G. saitguinea, Moseley, hitherto recorded only from New South 

 Wales, and Bipaliiiin kcwcnse, Moseley, an introduced species recorded by Fletcher* 

 from near Eltham. The genus Rhynchodemus has not again been met with. 



G. howitti and G. ventropnnctata are now fully described and figured for the first 

 time, and I have also taken the opportunity of giving figures of several other species 

 or varieties which I had not been able to figure previously. 



The question of the distinctness of the different "species" remains where it 

 was, but I hope that the observations concerning the variation in pattern and colour 

 recorded in the present contribution will be of assistance in ultimately settling it. 

 These observations are given systematically under the headings of the different 

 species, and I have thrown out hints as to the possible relationship of the different 

 forms, which may or may not be followed by future workers. 



I have also been in communication with Professor L. von Graff, of Gratz, who is 

 engaged in the preparation of an elaborate monograph of the whole group and wrote 

 to me for specimens of our xiustralian Planarians. I am glad to have been able to send 

 Professor von Graff a large number of our species, which he intends to examine 



* Linnean Society of New South Wales, February 25th, 1801. (Zoologis-clicr Anzeiger, April 20tli, 1891, p. 139.) 



