AUSTRALASIAN SPECIES. 173 



the females. The length of a large female is 50 mm. (3 inches), 

 that of a large male 25 to 30 mm. in the extended condition 

 after drowning. There is no external difference which enables 

 us to distinguish the sexes. The ventral organs, owing to the 

 character of their pigment, are much more conspicuous than 

 in the South African species. 



Colour. — The colour varies in different individuals (c/. figs. 

 7 and 17). The ground colour varies exceedingly in tint; it 

 consists of a bluish grey, or slate colour, or violet; it is 

 darker on the antennae than elsewhere, and is especially con- 

 centrated in small, dark, square, pentagonal, and hexagonal 

 patches lying close together over the whole surface of the 

 body. Sometimes the outline of these patches is darker than 

 the centre. 



The pigment of the papillae is also much darkened, but this 

 requires a separate description as the variations in the colour 

 of different individuals is mainly due to the papillae. In all 

 specimens a certain number of the papillae have brown or 

 orange pigment, which spreads out for a short distance around 

 the base of the papilla, as in the case of the white papillae of 

 the South African Peripatus Balfouri, so that if many of these 

 papillae occur close together the ground colour is brown or 

 orange and the slate entirely displaced ; if such are numerous, 

 they impart a distinctly brown aspect to the specimen. They 

 are scattered irregularly over the whole surface of the body, 

 but are most numerous, as in Cap en sis, in two bands on the 

 sides of the dorsal surface at the base of the legs, where, 

 indeed, in some specimens they almost completely replace the 

 blue. 



In most specimens, however, the greater number of papillae 

 presents a pigment which resembles more or less closely that of 

 the ground colour. In many specimens — perhaps the majority — 

 the papillae have a dark slate colour; but in some specimens 

 they may have a distinctly blue pigment^ and occasionally even 

 a dark purple. The lips, as in Capensis, are always destitute 

 of pigment, and, as in that species, there is a sharp line extend- 

 ing along the middle of the whole length of the dorsal surface, 



