ON THE OVIPAROUS SPECIES OF ONYCHOl'HOL'A. 387 



to be true of O. in sign is. All species seem to be vei'y rare, 

 tliongh pretty widely distributed. Thus I have never heard 

 of O. oviparus or O. insignis being found in anything 

 like the quantity in which Steel (1) has found Peripatus 

 Leuckartii in New South Wales, nor is 0. viridimacu- 

 latus anything like so common in New Zealand as is 

 P. novee-zealandiae. 



The nature of the locality in which the logs or stones used 

 as cover may occur varies greatly. Thus 0. oviparus may 

 be found under logs in a fern-tree gully, or under stones on a 

 bare hill-side,^ while probably the largest collection of this 

 species ^ yet made was obtained at an altitude of 5000 feet 

 or more, on Mount Kosciusko,^ and amounted to thirty-five 

 specimens. 



/• Phylogeny. 

 The genus Ooperipatus evidently stands in the closest 

 phylogenetic relationship to the other Australasian genus 

 o£ Onychophora — Peripatoides, which occurs side by 

 side with it both in Australia and New Zealand. The genus 

 Peripatoides was founded by Pocock (1) in 1894, for the 

 reception of the Australasian species of Onychophora, and 

 characterised as having the legs furnished with only three 

 spinous pads, and the generative aperture between the legs of 

 the last pair and well in advance of the anus. These characters 

 are also found in Ooperipatus, Avhich is distinguished from 

 Peripatoides, however, by its egg-laying habit and the 

 presence of the ovipositor in the female. 



Of Peripatoides I distinguish four species, as follows: 

 1. P. Leuckartii, auctorum,"* with 15 (fifteen) pairs of 

 claw-bearing legs and an accessory tooth on the outer blade 

 of the jaw. Male with crural glands. Characteristic of New 

 South Wales. 



^ Compare Dendy (2). 



* Steel (2) has identified tlie Kosciusko specimens as P. oviparus j tiiey 

 were described by Fietclier (3) as P. Leuckartii. 

 ^ Compare Fletcher (3). 

 ^ =: P. Leuckartii, var. orieutalis, Fletcher (7). 



