THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



[FOURTH SERIES.] 

 No. 107. NOVEMBER 1876. 



XXXIV. — On Peripatus novge-zealandise. 

 By Captain F. W. Hutton, Director of the Otago Museum 



[Plate XVII.] 



That a species of Peripatus inhabits New Zealand was first 

 brought to my notice by Mr. W. T. L. Travers, who showed 

 me a good locality for them near Wellington. I have since 

 found the same species at Nelson and at Dunedin ; so that it 

 probably occurs all over New Zealand. I sent some of the 

 first specimens I obtained to Dublin ; but they do not appear 

 to have been described, and I therefore suppose the species to 

 be as yet unnamed. 



Peripatus novce-zealandice^ sp. nov. 



Fifteen pairs of ambulatory legs, and a pair of oral papillse. 

 Surface granulated, the granules arranged in closely packed 

 rings on the body, antennae, and legs ; those of the body gene- 

 rally without bristles, those of the antennse and legs with a 

 short white bristle. Antennse subclavate, with about thirty 

 rings. Legs with about ten rings ; tarsi five-jointed, the 

 first three yellowish below and minutely hirsute, the last two 

 bearing on their lower surface a pair of pads, the last with 

 two curved, hollow, horny claws. Mouth ovate, tumid, 

 wrinkled, white ; inner pair of teeth 6-toothed (PL XVII. 

 fig. 2), outer simple. Vulva circular, tumid, wrinkled, yel- 

 lowish. Colour variable from brownish ferruginous to pur- 

 plish black ; generally a thin black dorsal stripe, and some- 

 times a reddish lateral stripe above the legs ; under surface 

 yellowish brown, mottled with black, and with a row of 

 lighter spots between the legs. 



Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 4. Vol. xviii. 25 



