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SCMAIARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
supposed ; it should be looked for on the damp lower surface of logs of 
wood which have been lying for some time on the ground. 
Victorian Land Planarians.* — Hr. A. Dendy describes fifteen 
Victorian species of Land Planarians, eleven of which are new. All but 
one — Pihynchodesmus Tictorise — belong to the genus Geoplana. These 
forms do not appear to have wide specific areas of distribution. Specific 
distinctions may be safely based on a combination of the following 
characters — colour and pattern, position of the external apertures, and 
general shape of the body. 
If a living land Planarian is placed in loose dry earth it forms a 
cyst for itself by cementing together the particles of earth with its slimy 
secretion. Within this cyst the worm lies completely hidden, and the 
habit of forming the cyst may be a protection against desiccation, and 
account for the disappearance of these Planarians in the heat of summer. 
They are certainly carnivorous in habit. The mode of copulation and 
the formation of cocoons are described. 
The brilliant coloration of these worms appears to be of a warning 
nature, for the application of the tongue to the slimy surface of the 
animal suffices to produce an exceedingly unpleasant sensation, some- 
thing like that caused by putting a piece of velvet or a lump of alum 
into the mouth. A living specimen of Geoplana Spenceri was thrown to 
some hens who, not being native birds, would not recognize it ; they 
speedily took it into their mouths, but quickly dropped the pieces. 
Genital Organs of Tristomidae.t — M. G. Saint - Eemy has studied 
the generative apparatus of Tristomum molse. PhyUoneUa solese. Pseudo- 
. M t led , and TJd l " , 
male apparatus is formed on one and the same plan, but is simplest in 
the Ldonellinse, and most complicated in the Tristoruinae. There are 
special glands which secrete a liquid destined to mix with the spermato- 
zoa, and these “ prostates ” empty their products into a reservoir which 
communicates with the ejaculatory canal, and are under the influence of 
the muscles of ejaculation. In PhyUonella there are, in addition, special 
glandular cells which line a part of the seminal canal ; these are analogous 
with those which have been observed by Linstow in Epjibdella. The 
ejaculatory apparatus consists of an ejaculatory vesicle which is under 
the influence t f more or less powerful muscles, and of a canal which is 
often situated in a penis, which, again, is lodged in a deep invagination 
of the wall of the body; in the Ldonellinae, however, there is no 
copulatory organ. 
The female organs are similarly formed on a common type, and as in 
the male, the principal modifications are to be found in the copulatory 
apparatus. A seminal reservoir is always connected with the genital 
ducts ; of these latter there is one or two, or none. In Udonella it is 
probable that self-fecundation is effected by the intermediation of the 
genital cloaca. Tristomum is the exception to the rule that the orifice 
of egress for the ova and that of the tegumentary invagination which 
incloses the penis are found in a common cloaca. There does not 
* Trans. Roy. Soc. .Victoria, 1890, pp. 65-80 (1 pi), 
t Coniptes Rendus, cxii. (1891) pp. 1072-4. 
