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Reports on zoology for 1843, 1844 / [Ray Society] ; translated from the german by George Busk, Alfred Tulk and Alexander H. Haliday
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520

REPORT ON ZOOLOGY, MDCCCXLLV.

respects of the same nature as the aquatic Planarise,and were distinguished by the same reproductive power.These animals, on creeping, leave behind them a slimystreak, are found under stones and in other moist loca-lities, and most probably live upon vegetable matter [viz.on decayed wood]. Their motion is very sluggish; theycannot endure water, and shun the light of day. Theirintestinal canal appears to be branched in the same way asit is in Planaria lactea, and their mouth-sucker also retainsthe power of motion for a very long time after the death oreven dissolution of the rest of the body. The externalorifice for the mouth-sucker and the genital orifice consist oftransverse slits, placed one behind the other, on the abdo-minal surface. Darwin enumerates twelve different speciesof these terrestrial Planarise, viz. Planaria vaginuloides, withnumerous ocelli at the anterior margin of the body, withyellow, orange-coloured and black markings, inch in length,and Planaria elegans , with ocelli only on the lateral edgesof the foot, with white, red-brown, and purple markings, oneinch long. Both species were found under the bark ofdecayed trees in the forests of Brazil . Planaria pulla andbilinearis, with numerous ocelli regularly disposed at theanterior part of the body; and Planaria nigro-fusca, withnumerous ocelli on the anterior border of the body; thoseat the anterior edge are grouped in regular series, buton the sides in two and three together. All three spe-cies occur under stones and rotten wood in the districtson the Rio Plata . Planaria pallida, three inches long,the ocelli of which are arranged like those of P. nigro-fusca,was discovered by Darwin in the neighbourhood of Valpa-raiso ; whilst he found in the south of Chili the threespecies, P. maculata, semilineata, and elongata, the last ofwhich had no ocelli, but was five inches in length. APlanaria tasmaniana, found in the forests of Van DiemensLand, was furnished with ocelli, set all round the margin ofthe foot.

Darwin (Annals Nat. Hist, xiv, p. 246) has also added the