264 

 2. Preliminary Notes on the Reproductive Organs of Peripatus oviparus. 



By Arthur Dend)% D.Sc; Professor of Biology in the Canterbury College, 

 University of New Zealand. 



eingeg. 8. April 1895. 



Having lately convinced my self by a careful anatomical comparison 

 of the two , that the oviparous Australian Peripatus with fifteen pairs 

 of claw-hearing legs is really specifically distinct from the externally 

 closely similar viviparous species found in New South Wales , I have 

 decided to apply the name Peripatus oviparus to the egg-laying species. 

 A systematic description of the new species will appear shortly in the 

 Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales. The exter- 

 nal characters of the oviparous species have been dealt with by me in 

 previous papers, in several of which I, as it now appears erroneously, 

 made use of the name Peripatus Leuckartii ^ 



As far as I have yet been able to discover, the only absolutely di- 

 stinctive features which characterize the oviparous species lie in the 

 structure of the female reproductive organs and the egg-laying habit. 



In the adult female, in place of the usual genital papilla, there is 

 a very conspicuous organ which may be termed an ovipositor. This is 

 an ovoid body of a pale yellow or orange colour, projecting backwards 

 from between the legs of the last (15th) pair. In adult specimens ordi- 

 narily contracted in spirit the ovipositor is as large or larger than the 

 legs between which it lies ; it is , however , capable of great extension. 

 Its surface is uniformly ornamented with minute, spine-bearing papillae 

 and at its apex it bears a large slit placed parallel to the long axis of 

 the body of the animal. The ovary consists of right and left halves 

 united in front and behind and attached by a mesentery to the peri- 

 cardial septum in the mid-dorsal line. The oviducts are long and con- 

 voluted ; they have a common origin from the posterior end of the ovary, 

 to which they are attached. Near to its point of origin each bears an 

 oval receptaculum seminis with two ducts. It is important to observe 

 that each oviduct is divided into three parts. All three parts are narrow 

 except where swollen out by the contained eggs. The first is very short 

 and extends from the point of attachment to the ovary to about the 

 level of the receptaculum ; its Avail is greatly folded and provided with 

 little excrescences on the side opposite to the receptaculum. The 

 middle and last portions of the oviduct are of about equal length. The 

 middle portion has very thick , apparently glandular walls. The last 

 portion has very thin , membranous walls. At their hinder ends the 



1 All my previous papers dealing with Victorian specimens of Peripatus with 

 fifteen pairs of claw-bearing legs refer to P. oviparus. 



