182 IDENTITY OF THE AUSTRALIAN PERIPATUS, 



this arrangement very intelligibly. What I find is a pair of 

 elevations at the distal end of the ventral aspect, one on each 

 side of the median line, and each of them without about two 

 spines; they are comparable with the similarly situated but more 

 extensive groups of "inconspicuous pale elevations, bearing 

 spines" in P. capensis referred to Ijy Sedgwick {I. c. p. 163). 

 Sanger, too, noticed them in that species, but in his fig. 5 they are 

 represented like a jDair of primary papilljs, each bearing one spine. 



Since then the type of P. leuckarti, Sang., has 14 jDairs of 

 walking legs, a question which naturally offers itself for considera- 

 tion is— hov/ ought the common, more widely distributed Austra- 

 lian Peripatus with 1 5 pairs of walking legs to be designated ? 

 Some months ago I had the opportunity of discussing the question 

 with Dr. Dendy in the light of Prof. Spencer's translation. As 

 the variation in the number of claw-bearing legs, as far as was 

 then known, appeared to be correlated with a variation in the 

 character of the outer jaw blades it seemed not unreasonable to 

 regard the Peripatus with 15 pairs of walking legs as distinct 

 from P. leuckarti, Sang., and entitled to a new name; Dr. Dendy 

 even considering himself justified in regarding the larger Victorian 

 Peripatus as sufficiently distinct from that of New South Wales 

 to merit independent specific rank. And we intended to act 

 accordingly. 



Quite unexpectedly, only last week, I received from Mr. A. M. 

 Lea, of West Australia, a small consignment of specimens from 

 that colony, the examination of which, as it seems to me, throws 

 important light on the question propounded above, and has com- 

 pelled me to modify my views. Each of five specimens has 15 

 pairs of walking legs, and the jaw-blades removed from one of 

 them are without an accessory tooth at the base of the fang of 

 the outer blade. Under the old regime it would have seemed to 

 be a moot point whether they should be called P. insignis, Dendy, 

 var. with 15 pairs of legs, or P. leuckarti, Sanger, var. with- 

 out an accessory tooth; indeed in the absence of males they might 

 almost have been referred to P. novce-zealmidice, Hutton. If the 



