88 Mr. n. N. Moseley on Peripatus novse-zealandiae. 



formed." The whole of Captain liiitton's figures are most 

 crude and imperfect. I believe that he has missed the turn- 

 ing-in of the first pair of limbs, of the claws of which the 

 jaws are the homologncs, and that in [1. c. pi. xvii.) fig. IS 

 the pair of appendages marked « corres})ond with those marked 

 fin fig. 15 (i.e. with the jaws), and not with those marked 

 a in that figure (which become tlie oral papillae), 



I have no doubt at all that he has been here misled by im- 

 perfect observation, as in the case of the generative organs. 

 I examined the embiyos of P. novce-zealandia?, and observed 

 some nearly 7 millims. in length, in which the first pair of 

 appendages was not yet turned inwards. Hence I saw the 

 same condition to exist as that which occurs in the Cape 

 species. 



In some minor points I think Captain Ilutton must be 

 further misled. He fails to see the dorsal heart in Peripatus^ 

 and describes as the blood-vascular system the two well- 

 known linear lateral bodies which are of doubtful function and 

 homology, and which have before been supposed to be pos- 

 sibly connected with the vascular system (Olaus, ' Zoologie,' 

 p. 387), but which 1 considered to be mere iat-bodies. 



He further describes salivary glands. I have not seen 

 such structures in Peripatus cajyensis^ and do not see how 

 I could have missed them in the other species, since I 

 dissected P. novce-zealandice with considerable care. In 

 regard to Captain Hutton's general remarks, it may be 

 noted that he does not seem to see the importance of the 

 determination of foot-jaws as existing in Peripatus, though it 

 is the presence of these stnictures which forms the real 

 distinction between Arthropods and Annelids. The real points 

 of interest which Captain Hutton has determined appear to me 

 to be : — 



1st. The observation of the offensive use of the viscid fluid 

 of Peripatus for catching prey and obtaining food. AYere the 

 ducts otherwise placed as to their opening, we might here 

 almost find a step towards the development of the spider's 

 web ; for the ejected slime forms a web (Phil. Trans. I. c. 

 p. 760); and I believe Peripatus to be ancestral to spiders 

 together with other tracheates. 



2nd. The probable shedding of the skin by Per?2^a^?<5. What 

 points most certainly to this is the ])resence of the reserve 

 horny jaws and claws within the active ones. I observed, 

 however, in the case of both jaws and claws in both P. capensis 

 and P. nova^-zealandice, three sets one within the other ; and 

 Captain Hutton's figure (/. c. fig. 2) seems to indicate such a 

 CQndition, although he mentions only two. 



