268 ON THE OVIPARITY OP THE LARGER VICTORIAN PERIPATUS, 



Wales Peripatus, which on the ipse dixit of Dr. Dendy himself is 

 P. leuckartii, Sang. ; the questions at issue being not whether or 

 no the Victorian Peripatus is oviparous, but whether, firstly, Dr. 

 Dendy was justified, on the evidence before him and in the absence 

 of any personal knowledge of the reproduction of the N.S.W. 

 Peripatus, in contradicting statements which were quite in order ; 

 and secondly, as Dr. Dendy's views were published in September, 

 1891, and as certain information on the subject was subsequently 

 brought under his notice, whether it is not now nearly time that 

 Dr. Dendy took steps to explain that his views apply wholly and 

 solely to the Victorian Peripatus, and to withdraw his insinuations 

 respecting, and his erroneous interpretation of, ' Mr. Fletcher's 

 observations,' because already Dr. Dendy's statements are finding 

 their way into the records of zoological literature, and confusion 

 and misapprehension may result therefrom." 



In reply to Mr. Fletcher's indictment I wish to make the 

 following remarks ; — 



(1) I do not understand the meaning of the statement that the 

 New South Wales Peripatus is, " on the ipse dixit of Dr. Dendy 

 himself," P. leuckartii. I cex'tainly am not responsible for this 

 identification, which was, I believe, first made by Mr. OllifF, who 

 remarks,* on first recording the animal from New South Wales, 

 that " The species is identical with that recently recorded by Mr. 

 Fletcher from Gippsland, and is probably the Peripatus leuckartii 

 of Sanger." I need scarcely point out that the name leuckarti 

 has since been applied by Mr. Fletcher himself to the New South 

 Wales species. 



Possibly Mr. Fletcher means to refer to the larger Victorian 

 species, of which the first recorded specimen was identified by 

 himself \ as "in all probability an example of P. leuckartii, 

 Sanger." If Mr. Fletcher will refer to my earliest communication 

 on the subject,! he will find that in recording the discovery of 



* P.L.S.N.S.W. Vol. ii. p. 981. 



t P.L.S.N.S.W. Vol. ii. p. 450. 



:J: " Victorian Naturalist," January, 1889. 



