Art. ly. — Note on the presence of Peripatus insignis tn 



Tasmania. 



By Baldwin Spencer, 



Professor of Biology in the University of Melbourne. 

 [Read 8th March, 1894.] 



Up to the present time the only record of Peripatus from 

 Tasmania is that of a single specimen described by Mr. J. J. 

 Fletcher. 



On the continent of Australia at any rate two, and possibly 

 three, species exist. There are P. kuckartii, P. insignis and a 

 Victorian form as yet referred to the former species, but which 

 may possibly turn out to be distinct. 



In Victoria Peripatus has never yet been found in such 

 abundance as Mr. Fletcher has recently described in the case 

 of the New South Wales form, P. leuckartii, from the Blue 

 Mountains, and of our two species the one first described by 

 Dr. Dendy as P. insignis is comparatively rai"e. 



Whilst in Tasmania during the summer of 1893 I searched 

 hard for Peripatus on Mount Wellington, in the Lake St. Clair 

 district, around Dee Bridge and Parattah. Though the localities 

 were apparently favourable ones I only succeeded in finding it at 

 Dee Bridge, where, under fallen logs and within the space of 

 half an acre I found some fifteen specimens. 



The interest of these lies in the fact that tliey are all referable 

 to the species P. insignis, with which they agree in the absence 

 of the accessory tooth on the outer jaw, in the possession of 

 fourteen pair of legs, and, generally speaking, in colouration. 

 Just as in the case of P. leuckartii there is a wide range of 

 variation in colouration, from very dark purplish-black specimens, 

 in which only the rudiments of a skin pattern can be detected, 

 to others in which the latter is a very marked feature. 



A point to notice is the large size of the specimens as compared 

 with those of the mainland — a feature not infrequent in the case 



