84 PERIPATUS AND ITS OCCURRENCE IN AUSTRALIA ; 
and he might with equal truth have related it of the species before 
us :—‘“‘ It has a distinctly prolonged but short conical tail with a 
knob-like enlargement at its extremity. . . . The anus being 
terminal the vulva is separated from it, and situate at a considerable 
interval further forward and between the last pair of members.”* 
Comparison between the two species cannot proceed further 
now, since access to specimens of Peripatus Nova-zealandiz or 
one or other of the more elaborate memoirs on Peripatus is 
denied us. It may be of interest, however, to remark concerning 
our speeies, that it exhibits the same variation in colouring which 
occurs in the different species of the genus, and as is exemplified 
in P. capensis—as we learn from Grube’s remarks—and in P. 
Nove-Zealandiz, as Professor Hutton records, and as is known 
from personal observation on the living New Zealand animal. 
The Australian species is very dark blue, almost black, with a 
few rust-like specs here and there, and lighter coloured beneath ; 
or dark fuscous, with a still darker line along the back. The 
papillz which arise in a single linear series along the close-trans- 
verse wrinkles on both surfaces of the body and limbs, are small 
blunt cones, composed of little three or more carinated imbricate 
scales, and terminate in erect spines, those on the upper surfaces 
being much larger than beneath. These papille are contiguous 
one to the other. The antenne are about thirty-ringed, their basal 
halves are swollen and then suddenly contract to the distal halves, 
which are of equal breadth, with short obtuse points. The rings of 
the narrow portion of the antenne are relatively longer than are 
those of the broad basal half. Around each ring there is a single 
line of short sete. The mouth is surrounded by a broad white lip, 
having thirteen strong folds. The horny claws terminating the 
foot-jaws contain two reserve claws, one within the other—as in 
the New Zealand Peripatus. The first jaw-claw is six-toothed, 
having one large tooth in front and five smaller ones behind. 
These latter—all of the same shape—are acute like the large tooth 
and, although the one immediately adjacent to it is about equal in 
size to the third tooth, the five form a series, the members of which 
otherwise, regularly diminish in size, and in this respect and in their 
uniformity differ from what occurs in the New Zealand species. 
* Moseley, Ann. and Mag., of N.H., Vol. XIX., p. go, 1877. 
+ Hutton. Ann, and Mag. of N. H., 4th Ser., Vol. XVIII. Pl. Itis 
interesting to observe that what is given as a character of the genus by 
Guilding (Zool. Journ., 1826, II., p. 444), viz.: the ‘‘ungues multifidi ” exists, 
in this and other species, only in one of the claws of the foot-jaws. 
