No. 5.] THE .MALE OF PERIPATUS EISEXI1. 259 



of the vas deferens, or spermatophore sack. Here the coiled 

 spermatophore seems to receive other layers of secretions 

 which form a case of some thickness. Fig. 7 and 7 a are 

 camera drawings of two views of a spermatophore, the pointed 

 end of which projects forward in the vas deferens. 



The crural glands which open out through the above-described 

 papillae are found only in the male. These glands from the 

 fourth pair of legs are large and extend almost half the length 

 of the animal. They leave the lateral compartment of the 

 body (unlike the same glands of P. capensis, which run their 

 whole distance in this portion of the body) almost immediately 

 to coil around the vas deferens. The crural glands of the 

 third pair of legs are very thin tubes winding in and around 

 the convoluted portions of the vasa deferentia, and around the 

 seminal vesicles, where they end. The accessory glands are 

 large tubes which are situated dorsally to the other organs ; 

 they run posteriorly (the right one going over and just under 

 the nerve), to empty a very short distance in front of the anus. 



In concluding this description, one point of great interest 

 presents itself which cannot be overlooked. This is the rapid 

 sexual development of the males to maturity. I observed that 

 in sections of very small specimens which could not have been 

 long from the uterus, the seminal vesicles were distended with 

 ripe and rapidly developing spermatozoa. In a male embryo 

 which was removed and sectioned, I found in the seminal vesi- 

 cle not a few spermatozoa and spermatids in abundance. It 

 would seem to follow from these conditions that the males of 

 the neotropical species of Peripatus must be rather short-lived, 

 and this fact will probably account for their scarcity. 



UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS, AUSTIN, TEX., 

 May i, 1900. 



