Page:Transactions NZ Institute Volume 33.djvu/127

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Art. IV.—On a New Zealand Fresh-water Leech (Glossiphonia (Clepsine) novæ-zealandiæ, n. sp.).

By Arthur Dendy, D.Sc., Professor of Biology in the Canterbury College; and MargaretFf. Olliver, M.A, Senior Scholar in Zoology, New Zealand University.

[Read before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, 4th July, 1900.]

Introductory Remarks.

The specimens upon which this communication is founded were collected by Mr. Henry Suter, who discovered them living attached to the underside of stones near the margin of Lake Takapuna, in the North Island of New Zealand, in com- pany with fresh-water Mollusca and sponges. Exceptional interest attaches to this discovery because it is generally sup- posed that leeches are absent from the land and fresh-water fauna of New Zealand. Thus in Parker and Haswell’s “Text- book of Zoology” (vol. 1, p. 481) we find the statement, “Hitherto no member of the class has been found in New Zealand, with the exception of the marine Branchellion." It should be pointed out, however, that a land-leech (Geobdella limbata) has been recorded from New Zealand. The only literature upon this species which we have been able to obtain is Moore’s paper on the leeches of the United States National Museum,[1] in which two specimens collected by the United States Exploring Expedition are stated to have come from New Zealand. It seems highly improbable that so aggressive an animal as a land-leech should remain unknown to the numerous local collectors who have explored the New Zealand bush, and we prefer to believe that some mistake has been made in the labelling of the two specimens in the United States National Museum.

Owing to the extremely small size of our species, the irregularity of the annulation in front, and the absence of any papillæ or colour-markings on the integument, we have found it impossible to determine the segmental arrangement of the various organs with that exactness which has of late years been customary with the describers of leeches.[2]

Our observations have been made upon both living and preserved specimens, and the internal anatomy has been in- vestigated by means of transverse and longitudinal vertical serial sections, as well as by dissection and the examination of

  1. ↑ Proceedings of the United States National Museum,” vol. xxi., p. 563.
  2. ↑ Compare Whitman, “The Segmental Sense-organs of the Leech,” American Naturalist, October, 1884; and “Description of Clepsine plana,” Journal of Morphology, vol. iv., No. 3, 1891.
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