PERIPATUS. 



231 



III.— PERIPATUS. 



Phylum 



Sub-Phylum 



Class 



Annulata (p. 237). 

 Arthropoda (p. 240). 

 Protracheata (p. 244). 



Fig. 152.— Lateral View of Peripatus Capensis. 

 (After Balfour.) 



Note the thick antennae on the head, the long soft body with seventeen pairs of 

 soft ringed legs, and the oral papillae at the sides of the mouth. 



Peripatus capensis is a small worm-like animal. The female 

 may be ly^ inches in length and the male slightly smaller. The body 

 is of a warm olive-green hue, shading off to light brown on the ventral 

 surface. It is usually to be found hiding under stones or in the crevices 

 of rocks, and occurs on Table Mountain. 



The anterior end bears a pair of thick antennse. Extending down 

 either side of the body and protruding ventrally are seventeen pairs of 

 stumpy legs terminating in two claws. 



The mouth is on the under side of the head or anterior end and is 

 covered laterally by a pair of oral papillcs, on which are the openings 

 of the slime glands. They are apparently the first pair of post-oral 

 appendages. Inside the mouth is a pair of chitinous jaws. At the 

 hind end opens the atius which also has a pair oi a7tal papilhe, probably 

 the last pair of appendages. At the base of each leg, on the inner side, 

 there is a nephridiopore. Immediately below the anus is the genital 

 aperture. 



The animal is strictly piano-symmetric. The body is soft and the 

 cuticle is not thickened into sclerites, but there are a number of soft 

 papillae all over the surface which bear cuticular spines. Under the 

 cuticle is a simple ectoderm covering the muscles. 



The antennae are tactile and there is a pair of simple eyes at the base of 

 the antennae. The mouth, with its chitinous jaws, leads into 2. pharynx^ 

 into which there opens a large pair of salivaiy glands, said to be a 

 modified pair of nephridia. A short oesophagus continues into a 

 spacious but simple stoffiach. Quite at the hind end of the body the 

 short intestine leads to the aims. The whole alimentary canal, as in 

 the cockroach, lies in the cavity of the body and there are no mesen- 

 teries. Immediately below the ectoderm there is a thick layer of 

 circular muscles, internally to which there is a series of longitudinal 

 muscles, more or less broken up into dorsal, ventral, and lateral bands. 



