Art. VI. — On the Oviparity of Pevipatus Icuckartii. 

 By Arthuk Dendy, D.Sc, F.L.S. 



^Eead August 13, 1891.] 



Perijxitv.s leuckartii has proved to be by no means 

 uncommon in Victoria, beincv recorded from a good many 

 distinct localities, and exhibiting a remarkable series of 

 variations in colour and pattern, as I have already described.* 

 Hitherto, howevei", little has been known of its habits, and 

 nothing of its mode of reproduction. The only observer, 

 so far as I am aware, who has said anything of its life- 

 history, is Mr. Fletcher, who has described-f- four very young 

 individuals, the progeny of a female kept by him in damp 

 moss 9nd leaves for four months (July to October inclusive). 

 Ml'. Fletcher did not observe the birth of the young, but 

 found them in company with the mother when apparently 

 only a few days old. He assumes, naturally enough, that 

 they were born alive, as in all other species whose lite- 

 history is known ; the viviparous habit being, indeed, one ot 

 the most remarkable characters of Feripatus. 



In May last I obtained several specimens of Pevipatus 

 leuckartii, chiefly from Macedon, some of which I have since 

 kept alive in a small vivarium specially arranged for the 

 purpose. The vivarium consists of a large glass jar, with a 

 flat glass tcp supported on two thin slips of glass slightly 

 above the edge of the jar, in order to admit of free ventila- 

 tion. To guard against drying up, from which cause I had 

 previously lost specimens, I keep a small open jar of water 

 inside the larger one, and the floor of the vivarium is thickly 

 covered with very rotten wood, kept moist by the evapoi-ation 

 of the water. 



In this vivarium Pevipatus flourishes well, and the speci- 

 mens may be inspected, when desired, by turning over the 



* "Proceedings of the Eoyal Society of Victoria," July 11, 1889. 

 t "Proceedings of the Linneau Society of New South Wales," October 

 81, 1888. 



