A SOUTH AMERICAN SPECIES OF PERIPATUS. 343 



On the Early Stages of the Development of a 

 South American Species of Peripatus. 



By 

 W. Ii. Sdater, B.A.. F.Z.S. 



With Plate XXIV. 



Contexts. 

 I. Introductory Remarks. III. Details of the Development. 



II. Structure of the Uterus. IV. Conclusions. 



I. Introductory Remarks. 



The development of the South American form of Peripatus 

 has been worked at by one author only, Kennel, who brought 

 his material from Trinidad. In his two published papers (3) 

 his results are so much at variance with the results arrived 

 at by Mr. Sedgwick (6), who has worked solely at the South 

 African form of the same genus, that it seems worth while 

 to go through the early stages of the South American Peri- 

 patus again. This I have been enabled to do by means of 

 specimens of Peripatus brought home by me alive from 

 Demerara last winter, which have supplied me with a fairly 

 complete series of embryos from the earliest stages onwards. 



The species of Peripatus occurring in Demerara seems to 

 me to differ materially from the other South American species, 

 as I have pointed out in a note in the ' Proceedings of the 

 Zoological Society' (5). But the absence of well-preserved 

 material makes it very difficult to settle this question with any 

 degree of certainty. Also it is to be hoped that Mr. Sedgwick, 

 in a memoir which he is about to publish on the various species 



