54 RANGE OF BIPALIUM KEWENSE. [CH. I 



how little had been done in the matter before his time. 

 Nevertheless what was accomplished by him and by Dendy, 

 Spencer, von Graff and the others who have succeeded 

 him has brought to light a good deal; we are in a position 

 to say something about the range of the group. The land 

 Planarians are as is known an artificial group ; they em- 

 brace the terrestrial forms among the Triclad Turbellaria. 

 The most familiar form in the whole group is the cele- 

 brated Bipalium kewense, which is an absolute cosmopolite; 

 it has been found in many localities in England such as 

 Kew whence it was first obtained, the Zoological Gardens, 

 &c. It has turned up on the continent, in Brazil, Australia 

 and elsewhere; but its real home appears to be the 

 Fijis. With this exception, which is probably due to 

 artificial importation, there is no species of land Planarian 

 which is so widely spread, indeed no species has a great 

 range at all even in the country which it inhabits. Mr 

 Dendy has 1 pointed out from his study of the Australian 

 species that "out of twenty-nine known Australian species, 

 nearly equally divided between the colonies of Victoria 

 and New South Wales, only three have been found in both 

 colonies"; he goes on to remark with justice "that the 

 land Planarians however widely they may be distributed 

 as a class do not enjoy wide specific area of distribution." 

 This fact of itself makes them exceedingly valuable as 

 examples of the importance of an invertebrate group in 

 contributing towards the solution of the problems of Zoo- 

 geography. So far as we know at present there are three 



1 Trans. Roy. Soc. Vict. 1890, p. 66. 



