THE VICTORIAN LAND PLANARIANS. 30 



strongly concave in spirit, and the markedly posterior position of the apertures, the 

 genital being close to the hinder extremity of tlie body, readily distinguish the 

 species. 



In one of my specimens the copulatory organs are partially protruded, and 

 exhibit the very remarkable peculiarity that while the female copulatory organ is 

 single there are two distinct male organs. The appearance and arrangement of these 

 parts is shown in Figure 6. Whether or not this condition is constant I cannot say, 

 but I am inclined to think that the species possesses anatomical peculiarities which 

 would well repay investigation, and which may even necessitate the erection of a new 

 genus for its reception. The eyes are arranged as is usual in Geoplana. 



19. Geoplana howitti, Dendy.* 



(PI. IV., Fig. 5.) 



Body (in spirit) much flattened on the ventral surface, strongly convex on the 

 dorsal, much broader behind, where it terminates rather abruptly and bluntly, than 

 in front, where it tapers gradually. Peripharyngeal aperture (in spirit) well behind 

 the middle of the ventral surface, only 8mm. from the hinder extremity of the body. 

 Genital aperture about 4mm. behind the peripharyngeal. Length of body (in spirit) 

 about 25inm., greatest breadth 4mm. The eyes are arranged as usual in the genus 

 but are difficult to make out owing to the dark pigment around them, so that I had 

 to cut a slice off the side of the head end before I could find them. 



When alive the ground colour of the dorsal surface was yellowish white ; in the 

 mid-dorsal line a fairly broad band of ground colour, on each side of this a stripe of 

 about equal width of dark purplish brown, outside this a rather broader band of 

 ground colour thickly flecked with dark purplish brown and edged on the outside by 

 a fine line of dark purplish brown, outside this fine line a very narrow edge of ground 

 colour. 



It is noteworthy, as showing a tendency towards variation in pattern, that in the 

 mid-dorsal band of ground colour, just in one place near the posterior end, there are 

 a few small flecks of dark i)urplish brown, as shown in the figure. The horse-shoe- 

 shaped anterior extremity is, during life, dark purplish brown, and all the dark bands 

 unite at each end of the body. 



The ventral surface in life is pale yellowish white or grey, with no markings. 



I found a single specimen of this Planarian beneath a log near the bank of the 

 Upper Wellington Eiver, at the foot of Mount Wellington, Giinisland, on the occasion 



* A brief preliminary diagnosis of this species was given in the Victorian Naturalist for Jiine-Jnly, li^Ol, p. 43. 



