EGGS OF PERIPATUS. 379 



fact that they have developed normally outside the body for 

 more than five months is pretty strong evidence in favour of 

 the view that our Peripatus is normally oviparous. I do 

 not wisff, however, to be dogmatic on the subject ; I give the 

 facts and prefer to leave others to draw their own conclu- 

 sions from them. 



There is one other question which I must refer to before I 

 finish. If Peripatus leuckartii is viviparous in New South 

 Wales, as has been sufficiently demonstrated by Mr. Fletcher 

 and Professor Haswell, is it reasonable to suppose that the 

 same species is oviparous in Victoria ? But are we certain 

 that our common Victorian Peripatus is P. leuckartii at all ? 

 I think not. There was already a certain amount of evi- 

 dence in the nature of the markings on the skin of the 

 animal for supposing that ours belongs to a distinct species ; 

 and the fact that ours is probably oviparous, and certainly 

 lays an egg with a sculptured shell, while the New South 

 Wales form is certainly viviparous, is another argument in 

 favour of the distinction of the two. It may be remembered 

 that when I first came across our common Peripatus in 

 Victoria I suggested that it was probably distinct from P. 

 leuckartii,^ basing my conclusion on the peculiar pattern of 

 the dorsal surface. Professor Sedgwick, however, promptly 

 replied to my communication in Nature^ and threw con- 

 siderable doubt on the distinctness of the two forms. Mr. 

 Fletcher also came to the conclusion that both belonged to 

 P. leuckartii, and I myself, on examining more specimens, 

 agreed with these two authorities. Hence our common 

 Victorian species is now always known as P. leuckartii. 



I think we may fairly consider, however, that recent 

 observations have reopened the old question, and, for my 

 own part, I strongly doubt whether the Victorian form 

 belongs to P. leuckartii at all. The following are my reasons 

 for supposing it to be distinct : — 



1 . I have shown in my " Observations on the Australian 

 Species of Peripatus " * that in our Victorian form with 

 fifteen pairs of legs there is a characteristic pattern on the 

 dorsal surface, consisting of a series of segmentally arranged 

 diamond-shaped patches in which the red colour is predo- 

 minant. This pattern may, however, be reduced to a series 

 of mere spots of yellow or red in some specimens. 



' Vide Victorian Naturalist, January, 1889, and Nature, 14th February' 

 1889. 

 " Proc. Royal Soc. Victoria, vol. ii., N.S., p. 50. 



