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VIII. On the SoutJi African Species of Peripatidae in the Collection 

 of the South African Museum. By W. F. PURCELL, Ph.D., 

 First Assistant. 



THE present paper deals with the South African species of 

 Peripatidfe, as represented in the collection of the Museum. Pull 

 descriptions of the external systematic characters of three out of the 

 four previously described species (P. capensis, balfouri, and moseleyi) 

 are given, together with descriptions of four new and perfectly 

 distinct ones. In addition five other forms are recorded, hut not 

 named, on account of lack of sufficient material. 



Historical. The genus Peripatus has been known from America 

 since its first establishment by Guilding in 1826, and some years 

 afterwards, in 1837, the first South African species was recorded and 

 described by De Blainville as Peripatus brevis, with 14 pairs of legs. 

 It was found by M. Goudot on Table Mountain, but appears never 

 to have been met with since. 



Peripatus does not seem to have been recorded from South Africa 

 again until 1868, when Grube described three specimens found 

 under stones on a hill at Constantia by Bitter v. Frauenfeld, during 

 the visit of the Austrian frigate " Novara " to the Cape in October, 

 1857. These three specimens were named Peripatus capensis by 

 Grube, and possessed 17-18 pairs of claw-bearing legs. Two of 

 these, including those figured, belong to Peripatopsis capensis as at 

 present limited, while the third belongs to the species subsequently 

 called balfouri by Sedgwick. 



Guilding placed Peripatus amongst the Mollusca, while Grube 

 considered it to be an Annelid. It was not until the visit of the 

 "Challenger" to the Cape in 1873, when Moseley obtained and 

 dissected living specimens of P. capensis, that the tracheate character 

 of these animals was discovered. Moseley obtained his specimens 



