TR ACHE AT A 301 



A pair of large antennae are borne on the head ; these are 

 composed of a series of annuli, each ring consisting of a number 

 of fused papillae, and consequently beset with rows of short 





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Fig. 174. — Large adult example of Peripatus capensis of natural size. From Moseley. 



bristles. At the base of each antenna, on the dorso-lateral 

 part of the head, an eye is situated. At each side of the head 

 is placed an " oral papilla^" at the free end of which the slime 

 glands open. Within the buccal cavity lie a pair of jaws, 

 each armed with a pair of sickle-shaped toothed cutting blades, 

 which are cuticular in origin. 



The remaining appendages are seventeen pairs of walking- 

 legs, which, with the exception of the fourth and fifth pairs in 

 both sexes and the last pair in the male, resemble one another 

 closely. Each leg is of a truncated conical shape, and bears 

 rings of papillae ; it terminates in a foot provided with two 

 cuticular claws. On the inner surface of each leg, near its 

 base, is the slit-like opening of a nephridiuni. The anus is 

 terminal, and guarded on each side by the last pair of append- 

 ages, the anal papillae. The genital opening is sub-terminal 

 and ventral. 



The skin consists of a layer of hypodermal cells which 

 secrete the cuticle ; within this is a double stratum of circular 

 muscle fibres crossing one another slightly obliquely, and sur- 

 rounding a layer of longitudinal fibres. The latter are arranged 

 in bundles : two dorsal, two lateral, and three ventral. A sheet 

 of dorso-ventral muscle fibres runs from the space between the 

 dorsal and lateral bands to the outer side of the median ventral 

 band, dividing the body-cavity into three longitudinal spaces : 

 a median which contains the alimentary canal the slime 

 glands and the generative organs, and two lateral which lodge 

 the nephridia, the salivary glands, and the nervous system. 

 The lateral space is continuous with the cavities of the 

 feet. There are special muscles which move the limbs, and 

 others in the walls of the alimentary canal ; throughout the 



