PART VII. 



HIRUDINEA OF SOUTHERN PATAGONIA. 



BY 



J. PERCY MOORE, 



UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



N'OTHING whatever was known of the fresh-water leech fauna of 

 the extreme southern end of South America of the entire region 

 south of Valdivia on the Pacific coast and of Montevideo on the 

 Atlantic side until the publication in 1890 of Blanchard's account of 

 the leeches collected by Dr. Michaelsen on the Hamburg Expedition to 

 the Straits of Magellan. In this paper the following species were de- 

 scribed from Tierra del Fuego and Punta Arenas on the Straits of Magel- 

 lan, all having been collected at no great distance from the coast in ponds, 

 lakes and swamps : Semiscolex variabilis Blanchard, Glossiphonia (Helob- 

 della] chilensis Blanchard, Glossiphonia (Helobdella] michaelseni Blan- 

 chard, and Glossiphonia (Helobdella] scutifera Blanchard. 



The material described in the present paper was collected inland along 

 the base of the mountains at elevations as high as 2,500 ft., and particularly 

 from the numerous springs and streams which feed the Rio Chico a 

 region from which no leeches have hitherto been described. As regards 

 the number of species the collection is small, comprising but six, belong- 

 ing to only two families. But several of these are represented by a great 

 many examples. Three of the four species recorded by Blanchard from 

 southern Patagonia are represented ; and two new species are included, 

 both of which possess functional nuchal glands, which in Glossiphonia 

 duplicata are greatly developed. So far as appears in the present very 

 incomplete state of our knowledge of the fresh-water leeches of this region, 

 the most striking feature of the fauna is the predominance of small glos- 

 siphonids of the group designated by Blanchard Helobdella. Including 

 G. stagnalis, which has been found as far south as Valdivia, this fauna 

 includes most of the known species with functional nuchal glands. 



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