PERIPATUS 105 



antennae it could push farther out or shorten 

 when it pleased. 



Since Peripatus like neither the light nor dry 

 air, they burrow deep in the loose moist ground 

 under old logs when the dry season comes on. In 

 the rainy season they come out at night and may 

 be seen by a flashlight as they move over their 

 logs. Like earthworms, they are able to crawl 

 backward as well as forward. When disturbed, 

 their smooth muscular bodies contract suddenly 

 and they squirt out small drops of sticky slime 

 which clings to almost everything it touches 

 except their own velvety skin. Perhaps this bom- 

 bardment frightens enemies away, and perhaps, 

 like the sticky stuff in the termite's squirt gun, it 

 helps to gum up the legs and wings of the animals 

 they hunt, so that they cannot easily escape. 



When they are taken into the laboratory for 

 study they can be fed on liver or flies. It is well 

 to remember to put only a few of the same size 

 in a cage, for they will also eat each other. I heard 

 the sad story of a man who managed to collect 

 fourteen grown Peripatus and twenty young. 

 Before he realized what was happening only three 

 were left. Those three had eaten all the others. 



The eggs are very fragile and the mother carries 

 them inside her own body until they are hatched 

 out. When the little Peripatus are born they are 

 like their mother in every way except that they 

 are smaller and not so dark. She does not take 



