A DESCRIPTION OF THE MALE OF PERIPATUS 



EISENII WHEELER. 1 



AUGUSTA RUCKER. 



THIS new Peripatus from Tepic, Mexico, was named by Dr. 

 W. M. Wheeler, of the University of Texas, and the female was 

 described by him in the Journal of Morphology for October, 

 1898. It is from his material, which Dr. Wheeler has placed 

 in my hands, and under his guidance, that I have obtained the 

 following results. In this paper I have undertaken to give a 

 description of the general external character of the male as dif- 

 fering from the female, and a description of its reproductive 

 organs, with a brief account of the spermatophores. I hope 

 in a short time to follow this up with the anatomical details, 

 and later on to give the embryology of this most interesting 

 animal. 



The males proved to be so abundant in the material that an 

 excellent opportunity presented itself for the study of this sex. 

 Out of the original number, consisting of eighty-six specimens, 

 thirty-two, on close examination, were found to be males. They 

 are very much smaller than the mature females ; in fact, sev- 

 eral of the mature males in the material were smaller than 

 embryo females (2 cm. in length) which I removed from the 

 uterus. The largest of the males measured only 2.8 cm., while 

 the largest female was 5.8 cm. in length. As to whether the 

 sexes differ in color I cannot say, since a glycerine preparation 

 used in softening the animals for sectioning has removed much 

 of the color. 



It has already been shown that this species varies in the 

 number of its walking appendages, as do all the other well- 

 known neotropical forms. The highest number of legs for 

 Peripatus Eisenii is twenty-nine pairs, while the lowest is 



1 Contributions from the Zoological Laboratory of the i'ni-'crsity of Texas, 

 Xo. 5. Director W. M. Wheeler. 



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