380 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION D. 



2. Mr. Fletcher states^ that altlioug"h in the only Victorian 

 specimen which he had examined he found the characteristic 

 pattern just as I described it, yet he has never seen a specimen 

 from New South Wales with a similar pattern. It must be 

 remembered that Mr. Fletcher and 1 have both examined a 

 large number of specimens from our respective colonies. 



3. jP. lenckartii is undoubtedly viviparous, while the Vic- 

 torian species is probably oviparous, and certainly can lay 

 eggs with a beautifully and regularly sculptured shell. 



4. Professor Spencer recently brought back from Queens- 

 land a number of sj)ecimens of typical jP. leuchartii, some of 

 which he most kindly permitted me to dissect and examine. 

 We both came to the conclusion that there was a marked 

 difference between the Queensland and A'^ictorian specimens 

 with regard to the appearance of the uterus and the intra- 

 uterine eggs. In the Queensland specimens the eggs (none 

 of which, unfortunately, were in an advanced stage of 

 development) were much more numerous, much less regular 

 in shape, and considerably smaller than in our Victorian 

 specimens ; they were also closely packed together, instead of 

 occupying separate dilatations of the uterus as in ours. 



These observations seem to me almost to justify the creation 

 of a new species for Victoria, but I still prefer to await 

 further developments. In considering this question care 

 must be taken to avoid confusion between our relatively 

 large, fifteen-legged Victorian form and our small fourteen- 

 legged species. The former is the one referred to all through 

 the present note, and is at present known as P. leuckartii ; 

 the latter is quite distinct, and has been described by me 

 under the name of P. insignis^. I take the precaution of 

 reminding naturalists of the existence of two totally distinct 

 Victorian species, because some confusion has already unfor- 

 tunately sprung up between them in an English periodical. 



• "Additional Notes on Peripatus IciccMrtil" Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., 

 30th Jnly, 1890. 



* Victorian Naturalist, April, 1890. 



