64 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Jury, 1899. 
if wet prevailed. How long prior to this it might have been observed there can- 
not scan be now ascertained. It is stated, however, by W. French, one o 
the staff of that establishment, that it was to be met with there already in 1883, 
in which year his official connection with the institution commenced. ‘Two 
apparent varieties—one nearly black, and the other pale yellowish-brown—were 
thus early recognisable. 
Beyond the fact that they represented the genus Vaginula, nothing was 
known of their systematic relationship until 1889, in which year a former 
scientific colleague, C. Hedley,* submitted specimens to D. F. Heynemann, who had 
not only, in conjunction with Fischer, written a monograph on the genus, but had 
also described a related slug, now known as Atopos australis (Heynemann), 
Simroth, from this colony. Heynemann in due course referred the specimens to 
Dr. H. Simroth, of Leipzig University, who pronounced the hitherto regarded 
varieties to represent two different species, that he named respectively Vaginula 
Hedleyi and Vaginula Leydigi ; the latter specific title beg a tribute to a 
venerated teacher, Geheimrath Leydig. 
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
Norr.—Dr. H. Simroth has devoted two memoirs to the technical description of 
these species of Vaginula; both are entitled “Uber einige Vaginula-Arten.” ‘The 
one is published in the Zoologischer Anzerger for 1889 (op. cit. vol. xii., pp. 551-556 
and 574-578, Leipzig, 1889), and the other in the Zoologischen Jahrbiichern for 
1891 (op. cit. Abth. f. Syst. vol. v., part 5, pp. 861-906, plates xlix.-lii.). The 
Anzeiger paper is fully summarised in the Journal of the Royal Microscopical 
Society for 1890, in a note entitled “Some Species of Vaginula” (op. cit. pp. 21-22), 
and is also referred to by C. Hedley ina paragraph “On Vaginula Leydigii and 
V. Hedleyi, Simr.,” in Proceedings Linnean Society of New South Wales for 1891 
(op. cit. ser. 2, vol. 5, p. 897). Dr. Simroth’s paper in the Zoologischen Jahrbiichern 
has unfortunately not been seen by the writer, but he is informed by the last- 
mentioned authority that it is “the paper in chief”; also that the plates reproduce a 
series of coloured and uncoloured drawings (the work of C. Hedley himself) of the 
animals, their eggs, &c., and exhaustively illustrate the anatomy—most fully dealt 
with also in the text. The student of the genus may also consult, with great profit, 
Dr. C. Semper’s Land Mollusken, part vii., in vol. iii. of his “ Reisen im Archipel 
de Philippinen, Wissenschaftliche Resultate” (op. cit. pp. 291-327, plates xxiy.-vii.), 
in which is embodied descriptions of the species of Vaginu/a contained in European 
collections at a time just prior to the date of Dr. Simroth’s first paper. 
INCREASE. 
For some years subsequent to the time at which these slugs were first 
remarked as occurring in the Botanical Gardens they remained apparently quite 
restricted to the limited area that these embrace, but already in 1895 they had 
extended in the Brisbane district far beyond them, for at that date they were 
very numerous on the hills immediately to the south on the opposite side of the 
river, especially in certain gardens on Highgate Hill and in Musgrave Park. 
At the present time they have reached almost all the suburbs of the city ; thus 
it has been certified on good authority that they are not only at Milton and 
Toowong, but that “they extend from the Junction on the Ipswich road, all 
around about West End to as far as the Albion, if not further”; also, that 
“they are very plentiful at the Acclimatisation Society's Gardens, Bowen 
Park.” Where they occur also they are, as a rule, to be met with in immense 
numbers. In the parks of North Brisbane, during warm wet nights, they ma 
be encountered in such numbers in the grass that every square foot of surface 
seems to be occupied by one or more. Mr. M. B. Bernays also has informed the 
writer that “where he is living near Highgate Hill it is usual to see, after 
nightfall, regiments of slugs, of at least three varieties, making their way from 
their haunts towards tender plants of all descriptions, be they vegetables or 
flowers. Within the last week (second week in April) I have collected as much 
as seven measured quarts of these vermin, and apparently have made very little 
progress towards their annihilation.” 
*** Kin guter Conchyliolog und speciell iiber Nachtschneckenanatomie ” (H. Simroth). 
