96 Annals of the South African Museum. 



of the ova and the contrivances by which the nutrition of the embryo 

 is effected in different Onychophora. Thus four distinct types have 

 been described, vyhich form a series in the following order : Peri- 

 patus, Para2)eripatus, PerijjatojJsis, and Pei'ijMtoides. At one end of 

 the series is Peripatus, with very small and yolkless ova, and with 

 its embryos attached to the uterine wall by a dorsal organ, by means 

 of which they receive nourishment, while at the other end is Peri- 

 2)atoides, with very large ova provided with abundant food-yolk, and 

 with embryos which have no special ectodermal organ for the purpose 

 of nutrition. 



Without taking other things into consideration, one would perhaps 

 at first feel inclined to agree with Korschelt and Heider (1892, p. 678) 

 in considering the condition in Peripatoides the most primitive one, 

 from which the more complicated method of embryonal nutrition 

 observed in Peripatus (and ParajJerijMtus) has been derived. It is, 

 therefore, of the greatest interest that A. Willey, in his recent studies 

 on the development of Paraperipatus novcB-britannia, has come to the 

 conclusion that there is nothing whatever to show that the small yolk- 

 less eggs of Peripatus and Paraperipatus ever possessed food-yolk, 

 and in an interesting discussion on this subject (p. 33 ff.) he distinctly 

 favours the view that the yolk-laden eggs of Peripatoides have been 

 secondarily developed within the Onychophora, and do not represent 

 the primitive condition, contrary to the views expressed by Kor- 

 schelt and Heider. 



II— SYSTEMATIC PAET. 



This part deals more especially with the colour variations, the 

 number of the legs, and the distribution of the various South African 

 Onychophora, and embodies mainly information which I have 

 obtained since the completion of my previous paper, to which it 

 forms a supplement. Of more particular interest are the variations 

 observed in the young of P. moseleyi, bred in the Museum from 

 specimens kindly sent us by the Rev. J. R. "Ward. 



1, Variation in colour. 



The species of both South African genera (with the exception, so 

 far, of only two species) vary as regards the ground colouration of 

 their dorsal and lateral surfaces within almost exactly the same 

 limits, namely, from a deep velvety black, greenish black, or dark 

 green, to a light brick-red (terra-cotta). The latter agrees very 

 closely with the colour termed testaceus in Saccardo's Chromotaxia 



