118 
president’s ADDRESS SECTION D. 
curiously modified Cotyloplana. In the north of New Zealand 
(Auckland) Rhynchodemus has been collected by Mr. Steel ; but, as I 
have pointed out elsewhere, it is quite possible that it may have been 
introduced to this locality, a supposition which is strengthened by the 
fact that the only recorded species is indistinguishable from one 
occurring in New South Wales (R. Moseley i), and occurs in the same 
locality as the undoubtedly introduced Bipalium kewense. 
The geographical range of the numerous species of the group is a 
matter which can only be really satisfactorily discussed when the 
question of the delimitation of these species is more definitely settled. 
Meantime, it is very important that information should be collected 
and placed on record as soon as possible, for these worms are so easily 
distributed with plants by man’s agency that already’ we are in danger 
of great confusion. Several species are known to occur in gardens in 
various parts of Australasia, whose native home is quite unknown, and 
such may be expected rapidly to extend their range into the bush, 
where they are likely to be mistaken for indigenous forms. This is 
notably the case with Bipalium kewense , which, first discovered in the 
Kew Gardens, near London, has acclimatized itself in many parts of 
the world, its native country being still unknown. A similar case is 
that of the remarkable blue-tipped variety of Geopluna coerulea , which is 
found in cultivated ground in Victoria, New South Wales, and New 
Zealand, but has never been met with in the bush. The most curious 
point about this case lies in the very slight difference which separates 
the variety in question from the ordinary form of G. ccerulea , 
commonly met with in the Australian bush, the anterior extremity 
of the body being blue in the former and pink in the latter. G. 
ventrolineata , again, is a very distinct species, which occurs abundantly 
in a nursery garden near Melbourne, but has been found nowhere else, 
and which may possibly have been introduced from some extra- 
Australasian locality. 
Since my arrival in New Zealand I have naturally been much 
interested in comparing the Land Planarians of that island with those 
of the Australian mainland. Judging from the results obtained by 
workers in other invertebrate groups (<?.y., Land Mollusca) one would 
expect to find a very distinct Planarian fauna in New Zealand. At 
present I am acquainted with some two dozen New Zealand species, 
a few of which are still undeseribed, and I find that though few of 
these can with safety be absolutely identified with Australian species, 
yet in several cases the differences are extremely slight, and not such 
as would, in my opinion, justify a specific distinction if the varieties 
were found together. It would seem as if many Australian species 
had slightly modified representatives in New Zealand, but at the same 
time it must not be forgotten that a number of very distinct forms 
have already been described. 
In concluding this brief and imperfect sketch of the cryptozoic 
fauna of Australasia, I would again venture to remind the biological 
members of this Association of the large amount of work which still 
remains to be done in this section of our native fauna. Although the 
animals in question are small, and to the ordinary observer perhaps 
extremely insignificant, they are very far from lacking interest from a 
biological point of view. They offer problems of importance to the 
