509 



den muß. Ich nenne sie Derogenes ruher n. g. n. sp. 6 . Über die 

 systematische Stellung der neuen Gattung wage ich ein sicheres Ur- 

 theil zur Zeit noch nicht zu fällen. Ich bin jedoch geneigt, sie auf 

 Grund der ziemlich weitgehenden Übereinstimmung in der Topographie 

 der Genitalorgane in die Nähe der Gattung Hemiurus Rud. (= Apo- 

 blema Duj.) zu stellen 7 . 



Königsberg i./Pr., im Juli 1900. 



11. Preliminary Note on a proposed new Genus of Onychophora. 



By Arthur Dendy, D. Sc, Professor of Biology in the Canterbury College, 

 University of New Zealand. 



eingeg. 10. August 1900. 



Some years ago I described 1 i under the name Peripatus oviparus, 

 an egg-laying species with fifteen (15) pairs of walking legs from the 

 Colony of Victoria, which had previously been confounded with the 

 common New South Wales species generally known as P. Leuckarti. 

 Quite lately I have briefly described 2 under the name Peripatus viri- 

 dimaculatus a species from New Zealand which has only fourteen (14) 

 pairs of walking legs and thus closely resembles P. insignis Dendy, 

 from Tasmania and Victoria (described in the " Victorian Naturalist" 

 for 1890 p. 173). 



I now find that P. viridimaculatus also lays eggs. This is indi- 

 cated (1) by the large ovipositor of the female, (2) by the presence in the 

 oviducts of large thick-shelled eggs and no embryos, (3) by the disco- 

 very of an egg in rotten wood in which an adult had been crept and 

 had died. The eggs closely resemble those of P. oviparus, with a si- 

 milar pattern and shell-structure. 



I have also good reason to believe that P. insignis is oviparous, for 

 the female possesses a prominent ovipositor as in P. oviparus and P. 

 viridimaculatus. Unfortunately my specimens of P. insignis are all 

 small and I have found neither eggs nor embryos in them, so that the 

 question cannot at present be decided with certainty. 



Mr. J. J. Fletcher has endeavoured 3 to shew that all the Au- 

 stralian species are only varieties of P. Leuckarti. I do not at all agree 



6 Nach Analogie von Pleurogenes bezw. Derostomum, von -q Sépiç bezw. -q 8ép7] 

 der Hals, wegen der Lage der Genitalöffnung in der Nähe des Pharynx. 



7 Vgl. namentlich Looss, Weitere Beiträge zur Kenntnis der Trematoden- 

 fauna Ägyptens, zugleich Versuch einer natürlichen Gliederung des Genus Distomum 

 Retzius. In: Zool. Jahrb. Abth. f. Syst. Bd. XII. 1899. p. 637—641. 



1 Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South "Wales for 1895. p. 195. 



2 Nature, March 8th, 1900. p. 444. 



3 Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales for 1S95. p. 172. 



