LAND PLANAEIANS FROM LORD HOWE ISLAND. 43 



from which place Grube has described two species of Ehynchodemus, viz., 

 R. bistriatns and R, quadristriatus. 



Lord Howe Island lies far away from the nearest mainland, in the north of what 

 it is now proposed to call the Tasman Sea at about one-third of the distance between 

 the Australian eastern coast and the most northerly point of New Zealand. It lies in 

 about Lat. 32° S. and Long. 158° E. and in the line of the comparatively shallow 

 soundings which indicate probably the existence of an ancient land connection 

 between New Zealand and the north of the Australian continent. It is interesting 

 hence to note that as far as our, at present, limited knowledge extends the genus 

 Ehynchodemus would appear to be more common as we go northwards on the 

 mainland, whilst there is only one species recorded from Victoria, five are known in 

 New South Wales, and it will be of interest to see whether a knowledge of Queensland 

 forms confirms this relative distribution of the two genera Geoplana and 

 Ehynchodemus. Had a species of Geoplana been at any rate at all plentiful on Lord 

 Howe Island it would have hardly escaped the notice of so careful a collector as Mr. 

 Whitelegge though at the same time it must be remembered, judging by experience 

 in Victoria, that forms commonly met with at one special time may at another be 

 few and far between. Still there is not in Mr. Whitelegge's collection a single 

 example of Geoplana. 



The collection proves to contain eight species all, so far as can be ascertained, 

 new to science. I am however unable to refer to the description of R. bistriatus and 

 R. quadristriatus described by Grube from the Samoan Islands. It is just possil)le 

 that these may be identical with two of the species now to be described but taking 

 into account the distance which separates the two islands and the fact that even 

 Victoria and New South Wales, though so close together, have very few species 

 indeed of land planarians in common it seems most likely that the species of 

 Ehynchodemus will be distinct on the Samoan and Lord Howe Islands. 



The most interesting part of the collection consists of two species which 

 must be referred to a new genus for which the name of Cotyloplana is proposed in 

 consequence of the presence of a distinct sucker-like structure on the ventral surface 

 anteriorly. 



In Part II. of this paper I propose to describe the anatomy of this genus. The 

 figures which accompany the paper are drawn from the spirit specimens and to 

 preserve the relative dimensions proportional compasses have been used : at the 

 same time it must be remembered that the form of these soft bodied creatures often 

 changes very much when they are placed in spirit ; still the markings and relative 

 position of the pharyngeal and genital apertures may, together with colour markings, 

 be taken as discriminative of the species. 



