156 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



at present known extends no further than Italy, France, and Algeria, 

 and although rare, there is no reason for supposing that it is not 

 indigenous in this country. Dutrochet's Leech is carnivorous, devoid 

 of teeth, harmless to man, and far removed from the typical blood- 

 sucking Land Leeches which are such a pest to the traveller in 

 certain hot countries. The four pairs of eyes appear as a series of 

 minute black spots fringing the anterior extremity. Its food consists 

 of various species of earthworm, which are devoured piecemeal. 

 Although spending much of its time in moist situations on land, it 

 is really an amphibious form, and it appears to issue from its hiding- 

 places for the most part at night in search of its prey. No doubt it 

 has sometimes been overlooked on account of its nocturnal habits 

 and superficial resemblance to an earthworm, and it is probably less 

 uncommon than is generally supposed. It was last recorded in 

 England in ]909, when it was discovered at the Withington Sewage 

 "Works, near Manchester, where it was found frequenting the effluent 

 channels, and feeding upon the earthworms washed out of the filter- 

 beds. I kept a number of specimens obtained from this source in 

 an aquarium filled but a few inches deep with water, and having a 

 quantity of moss banked up well above the water line. During the 

 day the Leeches lay quiescent beneath the water, but at night they 

 became active, frequently crawling forth amongst the moss, in 

 which, during the early summer, their flattened, elliptical, horny egg- 

 capsules were deposited. The occurrence of this Leech in England 

 up to the year 1877 formed the subject of an interesting paper by 

 Harting in the pages of this Journal (' Zoologist,' third series, vol. i. 

 (1877), pp. 515-523), and a full description of the species, with its 

 further history, has been given by the present writer in a recent 

 paper on the British Leeches (' Parasitology,' vol. iii., pp. 183-186, 

 plate XV., figs. 46 and 47). — W. A. Harding (Cambridge). 



