484 Records of the Indian Museum. [Voi^. VIII, 



Female reproductive organs (pi. xxxvii). 



It is extremely difficult to dissect out the female reproduc- 

 tive organs in a satisfactory manner, for the uteri, laden with the 

 large heavily-yolked eggs and embryos are coiled within the body- 

 cavity in such fashion that they cannot be separated in their 

 entirety from one another or from the intestine folds of which 

 completely fill all space superfluous to their development. The 

 coats of the embryos and eggs, though they rupture at the slight- 

 est touch during dissection, are very impervious and I have con- 

 sequently found it impossible to obtain satisfactory serial sections 

 of the entire animal in this part of the body. 



The ovary of Eoperipatus is described by Bvans as being at- 

 tached to the floor of the pt^ricardium " not b}^ a single ligament, 

 but by an extensive surface, thus differing from all the genera as 

 yet described .... Tt spreads itself out over the rectum and uteri 

 like a saddle and pushes itself into any space that may be unoccu- 

 pied, both between as well as outside the uteri." The ovary in 

 Typhloperipatus is similar (pi xxxvii, figs, i, 2). It lies closely 

 pressed against the pericardium in the latitude of the sixteenth 

 and seventeenth pairs of legs, its shape being determined entirely 

 by the space available between the adjacent coils of the uteri and 

 intestine. But though lying close against the pericardial floor, it 

 does not appear to be attached immovably to it. I have found it 

 easy to raise it fiom the surface and the fact that at the posterior 

 end a well-marked funiculus is found, fused to the pericardial 

 floor at the level of the eighteenth legs suggests that the ovary 

 itself is in reality unattached. Evans did not find any structure 

 resembling a funiculus in the specimens he examined, Vjut Bouvier's 

 account and figure of the ovary of E. weldoni ' seems to show that 

 the method of attachment in the Malaysian genus is sometimes 

 precisely similar to that of Typhloperipatus : Bouvier found that 

 the ovary was closely pressed against the pericardial floor, but 

 was separable from it, and that it was attached posteriorly by a 

 large funiculus. 



The ovary varies from about i'5 to 2'5 mm. in length: on 

 external examination the follicles in which the maturing ova lie 

 are conspicuous Anteriorly it narrows and leads into a long ovi- 

 duct which is unpaired for a distance equal to more than half the 

 length of the ovary. It divides, in the specimen figured, before 

 reaching the level of the fifteenth legs and one branch soon after- 

 wards bears a small receptaculum ovorum on its inner side and a 

 large receptaculum seminis on its outer side, the latter, though 

 it is in reahty fed by two ducts, appearing practically sessile 

 (pi. xxxvii, figs. I, 3, 4). Similar structures are visible in the 



the ^enns Peri patopsis oi Bouvier's terminology. Bouvier himself regards it as the 

 type of a separate genus Opistliopatiis, in which he also includes O. blaiitvillei, a 

 Chilian species in which the openings of the male accessory glands have not been 

 described. Sedgwick places this form in a separate group " Chilioperipatus." 

 ' Bouxier, .\nn. Sci. nat. 7ool. (g), II, p. 365, text-hg. .^4, p. 32 1^1903). 



