290 PROF. W. J. DAKIN ON THE 
Spencer and Bouvier in the same year precluded either from 
seeing the publication of the other. 
After consulting both these papers, in order to name certain 
specimens captured in almost the same district, the probability of 
Peripatoides gilesti and Peripatoides woodwardi being one and the 
same did not seem very remote. Further investigation has made 
the probability an actual fact. 
My first specimens, numbering 14 in all, were collected on the 
afternoon of July 5th at a spot not far from Mundaring Weir. 
They were obtained at distances varying from 3 to 4 yards to 
80 yards from a small streamlet 2 or 3 feet in breadth and a few 
inches deep, with banks 5 or 6 feet in height. The specimens 
occurred lying under small logs, broken branches from the trees, 
which were about 1 to 3 feet in length and 2 inches in diameter. 
Occasionally they are to be found under larger logs. Further- 
more, the animals were not distributed uniformly in the area 
examined. They appear to occur on patches of ground the 
character of which became familiar after a time, so that one could 
speak of a “likely spot.” The ground was not particularly damp _ 
and was often in brilliant sunlight, there being little shade from 
the scattered “blackboys” and eucalypts. In most cases the 
surface of the ground was not covered with vegetation, but was 
sandy or sand mixed with organic débris. Two, or even three, 
specimens might be found under the same log, but usually only one. 
These specimens from Mundaring Weir agreed with Bouvier’s 
description of Peripatoides woodwardi. In order to be more 
certain of their relation to Peripatoides gilesii, I asked Professor 
Spencer for the type-specimens of the latter, and he very kindly 
had these sent to me, together with a microscopic preparation of 
the jaws. 
Dimensions. According to Bouvier the length of his specimens 
varied from 10°5 mm.to 21mm. This is stated by him to be 
almost the size of Peripatoides orientalis and a little larger than 
Peripatoides occidentalis. 
Spencer's specimens of Peripatoides gilesti measured 22 mm., 
25 mm., and 27 mm., respectively. The discrepancy in size 
means nothing, for in Bouvier’s case the individuals were preserved 
and contracted. My specimens from Mundaring Weir ranged in 
size from 12 mm. to 34 mm. The length of 34 mm. was that of 
the largest when outstretched and walking. On being touched 
it contracted to 28-30 mm., and on fixation it diminished still 
further to about 22 mm. It is obvious therefore that one must 
be careful in deducing any differences from dimensions. 
Colour. So far as colour is concerned, the specimens collected 
at Mundaring can be roughly sorted out into two groups—a group 
in which brown-red predominates and a group in which green- 
grey of a dull shade is the dominant colour. Spencer’s specimens 
vary too in a similar way, and he refers in his paper to greenish- 
yellow and reddish-brown specimens. Bouvier’s specimens are 
again the same, and he described blue-green to black individuals 
and others of a fawn-yellow, sometimes pale, sometimes red. 
