CHAPTER I 



PERIPATUS 



INTRODUCTION EXTERNAL FEATURES HABITS BREEDING 



ANATOMY ALIMENTARY CANAL NERVOUS SYSTEM THE 



BODY WALL THE TRACHEAL SYSTEM THE MUSCULAR 



SYSTEM THE VASCULAR SYSTEM THE BODY CAVITY 



NEPHRIDIA GENERATIVE ORGANS DEVELOPMENT SYNOPSIS 



OF THE SPECIES SUMMARY OF DISTRIBUTION. 



The genus Feripatus was established in 1826 by Guilding,^ who 

 first obtained specimens of it from St. Vincent in the Antilles. 

 He regarded it as a Mollusc, being no doubt deceived by the 

 slug - like appearance given by the antennae. Specimens were 

 subsequently obtained from other parts of the Neotropical region 

 and from South Africa and Australia, and the animal was vari- 

 ously assigned by the zoologists of the day to the Annelida 

 and Myriapoda. Its true place in the system, as a primitive 

 member of the group Arthropoda, was lirst established in 1874 

 by Moseley,^ who discovered the tracheae. The genus has been 

 monographed by Sedgwick,^ who has also written an account of 

 the development of the Cape species.^ A bibliography will be 

 found in Sedgwick's Monograph. 



^ L. Guilding, ' ' Molhisca caribhaeana : an Account of a Xew Genus of Mollusca, " 

 J^ool. Journ. vol. ii. 1826, p. 443, pi. 14 ; reprinted in Ms, vol. xxi. 1828, p. 158, pL ii. 



- H. N. Moseley, "On the Structure and Development of Pcn^?5ca/x'^w," iV///. 

 Trans, clxiv. pis. Ixxii.-lxxv. pp. 757-782 ; and Proe. Ji. S. xxii. pp. 344-350, 1874.. 

 ^ A. Sedgwick, "A Monograph of the Genus Per ipaf its," Quart. Journ. of Mic. 

 Science, vol. xxviii., and in Studies from the Morphological Laboratory of the Uni- 

 versity of Cambridge, vol. iv. Cf. also p. 23 n. 



^ A. Sedgwick, *'A Monograph of the Development of Peripatits capensis," 

 Studies from the Morphological Laboratory of the University of Camhridgey vol iv. 



