CHAPTER I 



PBBIPATUS 



INTRODUCTION EXTERNAL FEATURES HABITS BREEDING 



ANATOMY ALIMENTARY CANAL NERVOUS SYSTEM THE 



BODY WALL THE TRACHEAL SYSTEM THE MUSCULAR 



SYSTEM THE VASCULAR SYSTEM THE BODY CAVITY - 



NEPHRIDIA ( GENERATIVE ORGANS DEVELOPMENT SYNOPSIS 



OF THE SPECIES SUMMARY OF DISTRIBUTION. 



THE genus Peripatus was established in 1826 by Guilding, 1 who 

 first obtained specimens of it from St. Vincent in the Antilles. 

 He regarded it as a Mollusc, being no doubt deceived by the 

 slug - like appearance given by the antennae. Specimens were 

 subsequently obtained from other parts of the Neotropical region 

 and from South Africa and Australia, and the animal was vari- 

 ously assigned by the zoologists of the day to the Annelida 

 and Myriapoda. Its true place in the system, as a primitive 

 member of the group Arthropoda, was first established in 1874 

 by Moseley, 2 who discovered the tracheae. The genus has been 

 monographed by Sedgwick, 3 who has also written an account of 

 the development of the Cape species. 4 A bibliography will be 

 found in Sedgwick's Monograph. 



1 L. Guilding, ' ' Mollusca caribbaeana : an Account of a Xew Genus of Mollusca," 

 Zool. Journ. vol. ii. 1826, p. 443, pi. 14 ; reprinted in Isis, vol. xxi. 1828, p. 158, pi. ii. 



2 H. N. Moseley, "On the Structure and Development of Peripatus capcnsis" Phil. 

 2'ntii*. clxiv. pis. lxxii.-lxxv. pp. 757-782 ; and Proc. H. S. xxii. pp. 344-350, 1874. 



3 A. Sedgwick, "A Monograph of the Genus Peripatus," Quart. Journ. of Mic. 

 Science, vol. xxviii., and in Studies from the Morphological Laboratory of the Uni- 

 Ki-xiti/ of Cambridge, vol. iv. 



* A. Sedgwick, "A Monograph of the Development of Peripatus capensis," 

 Studies from the Morphological Laboratory of the University of Cambridge, vol. iv. 



