No. IlL—ON AN ARBORICOLOUS NEMERTEAN FROM THE SEYCHELLES. 
By R. C. Punyert, Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. 
(Communicated by J. Sranuey Garprner, M.A., F.L.S.) 
(Plate 11 and Text-figure 24.) 
Read 21st February, 1907. 
THE single species of land-nemertean obtained by Mr. Staaley Gardiner in the 
Seychelles proves to be new. Apart from its bearing on the problems of geographical 
distribution, the chief interest of this species lies in its curious habitat. Like many 
of the land-nemerteans and turbellarians, it is found near the ground beneath the 
decaying “bark of trees and in other moist spots; but it also occurs in a position not 
generally associated with this group of animals, viz. in the tree-tops. At the bases of 
the leaves of the screw-pine (Pandanus Hornet) is found a moist humus, which 
possesses a fauna of its own; and of the members of this fauna not the least 
interesting is Geonemertes arboricola. How it got there we do not know; but 
Mr. Gardiner has suggested to me that it may have been carried up by the seedling in 
its growth, and that the nemerteans living on a tree, 40-50 feet above the ground, are 
the direct descendants of those which the tree pushed skywards as it grew. 
Through the kindness of Prof. Jeffrey Bell, I have been able to study specimens of 
the land-nemertean (G. rodericana) which Gulliver obtained in Rodriguez, and to add 
several points of anatomical detail which are not to be found in the original paper. ‘To 
Professor Dendy I would express my gratitude for some notes on G. australiensis and 
for copies of his papers dealing with that form. My thanks are also due to my friend 
Mr. Forster Cooper for the sketch which forms the first figure of the Plate. 
As the anatomy of more than one allied species has been studied very fully by 
von Graff*, Dendy +, and Coet, I have not thought it necessary to go into great detail 
here. In the recent paper by the last-named author will be found a complete list of 
the papers which have hitherto appeared on this group. 
Geonemertes arboricola, n. sp. 
Localities. Chateau Margot, Mahé, Seychelles; 1600 ft. Cascade Forest, Mahé ; 
from leaf-bases of Pandanus Hornet; about 1800 ft. 
A small species, varying from about 15-25 mm. in length. Ground-colour (in life) 
pale whitish brown. The dorsal surface is marked by a deep purple-brown stripe in the 
* Morph, Jahr., Bd. v. (1879), + Proc. Roy. Soc. Victoria, voi, iv. (1892). 
¢ Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist. vol. xxxi, (1904). 
SECOND SERIES.—ZOOLOGY, VOL. XII. 9 
