No. IJ.—ON A NEW LAND-LEECH FROM THE SEYCHELLES. 
By W. A. Harprne, M.A., F.L.S. 
(Plate 6 and 1 Text-figure.) 
Read 16th January, 1913. 
THE four specimens of a land-leech brought back by Professor Stanley Gardiner from 
the Seychelles are the first examples of Hirudinea to be recorded from these Islands. 
This species not only proves to be new, but possesses unusual features which, if not 
singly, at least collectively justify the establishment of a new genus: it is worthy of note 
also on account of its habitat, for although its restriction to such situations seems 
improbable, the individuals so far obtained have to be added to the list of fauna 
found in the moist humus which accumulates in the hollow leaf-bases of Pandanus 
and palm~*. 
Terrestrial leeches fall into two groups. Of one of these Zrocheta, a form not 
unknown in England, may be taken as the type. It comprises several genera of 
Herpobdellidee of carnivorous habit, with toothless, more or less vestigial jaws, which prey 
for the most part upon earthworms. 
It is another group however, the Hemadipsine, whose members are usually 
indicated by the term “land-leech,” and to it the new form from the Seychelles is to 
be referred. 
This includes a number of voracious, blood-sucking parasites, typical of which is 
Hemadipsa zeylanica, so familiar to the traveller in the hilly parts of India and Ceylon. 
The Heemadipsine are essentially an Oriental group, although represented by several 
more or less aberrant genera in other regions of the globe. 
In all, seven well-established genera have been recognised hitherto; they all affect 
considerable altitudes and are conspicuous by their absence from Madagascar and Africa. 
Of these genera, Hamadipsa (Tennent, 1861) multiplies exceedingly throughout the 
Oriental region ; it ranges as far north as Japan, as far east, it is said, as New Guinea 
and the Pelew Islands, and probably requires further sub-division ; Xerobdella (von 
Frauenfeld, 1868) occurs in the South Austrian Alps; Mesobdella, a form having affinities 
with the Glossosiphonide, is found in Chile and was first described by Professor R. 
Blanchard in 1893; the same authority has recorded (1894 and 1897) Phytobdella from 
the Philippines and Moluccas and Planobdella (1897) from Celebes; Moquina 
(R. Blanchard, 1888) and Philemon (R. Blanchard, 1897) are confined to Australia and 
* Cf. R. C. Punnett, “On an Arboricolous Nemertean from the Seychelles.” Trans. Linn. Soc. Ser. 2, Zool. 
xii. (1907), p. 57. 
