184 IDENTITY OF THE AUSTRALIAN PERIPATUS, 



longitudinal stripes of blue and orange or their equivalents — three 

 of the former and four of the latter; or red with two of the dark 

 stripes represented only by blackish blotches and discontinuous 

 irregular patches. With an interesting series of more or less 

 gradational colour-varieties arising from some modification of the 

 following pattern : the dorsal surface is a mosaic of three longi- 

 tudinal series of roughly hexagonal or lozenge-shaped areas 

 outlined in dark upon a lighter background, bordered on each side 

 b}'- a light longitudinal stripe immediately above the insertion of 

 the legs; the lozenges of the median series are confluent, the 

 boundaries between them having disappeared, they correspond 

 with the legs, and down the middle of the series dividing it 

 symmetrically is a dark — blue, black, or rarely red — line often 

 presenting as it were a knot-like enlargement in the middle of 

 each lozenge, the dark line having down the centre of it a fine 

 unpigmented sometimes interrupted groove. From the relative 

 proportions of l^lue and orange or their equivalents present, from 

 the partial or more or less complete disappearance of the dark 

 reticulate pattern, or from the subdivision of the median series of 

 lozenges into two sets of four-sided or diamond-shaped areas result 

 some very interesting and, without a series for examination, some- 

 times very puzzling combinations. The legs sometimes aj^pear as 

 if inserted on a dark longitudinal stripe. The colour of the 

 ventral surface is paler, but not less varied than that of the dorsal 

 surface; generally speaking, it presents shades of the predominant 

 tints of the dorsal surface. A discontinuous median series of 

 small pale areas devoid of papillae down the middle of it (ventral 

 organs), one or sometimes two to each pair of legs. 



As in P. novoi-zealayidice, the generative opening is between 

 the legs of the last pair; the claw-bearing legs have three spinous 

 pads; and a primary papilla projects from the median dorsal 

 portion of the foot. 



Hah. — In suitable situations in the table-land and coastal 

 regions of Queensland and New South Wales, widely distributed 

 but not abundant; Victoria; Tasmania; and West Australia. 



