An Addition to the British Fauna: (Rhynchodemus Scharffi)

Abstract

ONE of my students, Mr. G. D. Morison, has brought me a very interesting Planarian worm which he found this morning under rotten wood in a coal-shed in a garden at Chiswick. This is the fourth specimen which he has found in the same place, where they were associated with slugs, upon which they may have been feeding. The other three specimens were found a week ago. A living specimen was measured up to 6 cm. in length when crawling. In this condition the worm is very slender; when contracted it is naturally a good deal thicker and exhibits a transverse wrinkling. The colour in life is usually bright yellow, without pattern, but with a dusky anterior tip bearing the two small eyes close to the extremity. Mr. Morison tells me, however, that one specimen was salmon-pink.