570 ON A KEW NEMERTEAX. 



is most certainly non-nervous. It stains an intense blue with 

 lifemntoxylin and has all the characters of glandular tissue. 



Cephalic Gland. — ^One of the most curious differences between 

 G. dendyi and G. australieiisls is the apparent lack of a well- 

 developed cephalic gland. I must confess that I cannot recognise 

 any structures in my sections which seem to fit in with the descrip- 

 tion given by Dendy. The sections were stained with hsematox- 

 ylin, and glandular structures are well brought out. The dorsal 

 glands are well developed, and agree in position with those 

 described as occurring in G. aiistralie)i,sis, but there are no other 

 distinctly " large, irregular, glandular masses, closely packed 

 together — staining deeply with hfematoxylin " overlying the 

 dorsal lobes of the cephalic ganglia. The only well-developed 

 glandular structures in this position are the anterior glandular 

 masses of the dorsal glands. 



Reproductive Organs. ^The single specimen so far known is a 

 mature female, and there is no trace whatever of male organs. 

 The sexes are also separate in G. aiostraliensis. In the classifi- 

 cation offered in Benham's treatise (Treatise on Zoology, Ed. by 

 E. R. La^ikester, Part iv.)the genus Geonemertes is placed in the 

 family Prosorhocmidae : " With four eyes, cerebral organs are 

 rudimentary. Cephalic gland large. Mouth and rhynchocoel 

 coincident. Usually hermaphrodite." If G. dendyi is considered 

 as one member of this family, the diagnosis of the latter i-equires 

 to be made a little more general. 



In G. dendyi the ova are found throughout almost the entire 

 length of the body — the most anterior ones occurring just pos- 

 terior to the brain-masses. They are present in difierent stages of 

 growth, but most of them are very large and apparently mature. 

 Curiously enough, I cannot detect the genital ducts which are 

 figured so distinctly by Dendy. In one or two places there are 

 signs that might be interpreted as remains of these ducts. If 

 one did not know, however, that such structures did exist in the 

 genus, they would never be suspected from my sections. 



Summary 



The characteristic features of Geonemertes dendyi, sp. n., are as 

 follows. The length of the mature female is about 15 mm. when 

 ci'awling. The colour is brown-pink, with two dorsal and some- 

 wdiat posterior darker longitudinal bands of chocolate-brown. 

 The eyes are arranged in four groups— two anterior, each of five 

 or six larger spots, and two posterior groups, each of three smaller 

 eyes, making about sixteen or seventeen altogether. Lateral 

 organs are well developed, opening by chai-acteristic ciliated 

 cephalic pits on the ventral surface at the anterior end. The 

 mouth opens into the rhynchodseum. Tlie sexes are distiAct. 

 Cephalic gland apparently not well developed. Other structures 

 ao-reeing well with the description of similar parts in G. austral- 

 iensis. The specimen w-as found under a small log, together 

 with Peripatus gilesii, in the Darling Hills, Western Australia, 

 i\ot far from Perth. 



