New Cave Planarian 
95 
which is also located on the left side. The epithelium lining the vagina 
consists of large, apparently apocrine cells with basal nuclei (Fig. 3A), 
quite different from those of the anterior part of the bursal duct. It ap- 
pears that one of the functions of the vagina is the resorption of super- 
fluous sperm after copulation, a process that may take place at many 
locations in the turbellarians (cf. particularly Cernosvitov 1931). Sperm 
was present in the vagina in two of the three specimens examined. The 
vagina connects with the posterior end of the common atrium (ac). At the 
transition, the nature of the epithelial lining changes from the vaginal 
glandular epithelium to the nonglandular, ciliated epithelium of the 
atrium. 
The two oviducts or ovovitelloducts unite in the space between the bur- 
sal stalk and the atria and form a common oviduct {ode) that opens from 
the dorsal side near the junction of the male and common atria. 
Distribution and ecology. — Four specimens were collected on 7 April 1979 
by Dr. Cato O. Holler, Jr., Christopher Holler, and Keith Barnes in a 
small seep toward the rear end of One Bat Cave, located in the Linville 
Gorge Wilderness Area, Burke County, North Carolina. They were sent 
to me alive. Three of the specimens proved to be sexually mature. 
Taxonomic position. — Phagocata carolinensis belongs to a group of closely 
related species of the genus distributed in the Appalachian region. Exter- 
nally it cannot be distinguished from two other species, P. angusta and P. 
holleri. The three have in common the lack of body pigment, a slender 
shape, a truncate head end without prominent auricular projections, a 
pair of very small eyes, and anatomically prepharyngeal ventral testes. 
The principal differences are in the configuration of the copulatory com- 
plex. The penial lumen in P. carolinensis shows the peculiar transverse 
lamellae (at least in the retracted penis), while in P. holleri it contains 
finger-shaped villi (compare Figures 3A and 3B) and in P. angusta no 
special internal differentiations. Phagocata carolinensis has an extraor- 
dinarily large lobate vagina with a modified histology; P. angusta , a villous 
vagina of moderate size; and P. holleri , no distinguishable vaginal 
formation. In P. holleri the copulatory apparatus is situated considerably 
posterior to the pharyngeal pouch; in P. carolinensis the apparatus adjoins 
the pouch closely; while P. angusta has an intermediate position. Details in 
the histological differentiation of the epithelia of the copulatory complex 
also differ in the three species. 
Etymology. — The species is named carolinensis after its habitat, North 
Carolina. 
