PERIPATUS. 231 
III.—PERIPATUS. 
PHYLUM ANNULATA (p. 237). 
Sus-PHYLUM ARTHROPODA (p. 240). 
Crass PROTRACHEATA (p. 244). 
Fig. 152.—LaTERAL VIEW OF PERIPATUS CAPENSIS. 
(After BALFour.) 
Note the thick antennz on the head, the long soft body with seventeen pairs of 
soft ringed legs, and the oral papilla at the sides of the mouth. 
Peripatus capensis is a small worm-like animal. The female 
may be 2% inches in length and the male slightly smaller. The body 
is of a warm olive-green hue, shading off to light brown on the ventral 
surface. It is usually to be found hiding under stones or in the crevices 
of rocks, and occurs on Table Mountain. 
The anterior end bears a pair of thick antenne. Extending down 
either side of the body and protruding ventrally are seventeen pairs of 
stumpy legs terminating in two claws. 
The mouth is on the under side of the head or anterior end and is 
covered laterally by a pair of oral papilla, on which are the openings 
of the slime glands, They are apparently the first pair of post-oral 
appendages. Inside the mouth is a pair of chitinous jaws. At the 
hind end opens the azzs which also has a pair of anal papilla, probably 
the last pair of appendages. At the base of each leg, on the inner side, 
there is a nephridiopore. Immediately below the anus is the gezdfal 
aperture. 
The animal is strictly plano-symmetric. The body is soft and the 
cuticle is not thickened into sclerites, but there are a number of soft 
papillze all over the surface which bear cuticular spines. Under the 
cuticle is a simple ectoderm covering the muscles. 
The antennz are tactile and there is a pair of sémple eyes at the base of 
the antenne. The mouth, with its chitinous jaws, leads into a pharynx, 
into which there opens a large pair of salzvary glands, said to be a 
modified pair of nephridia. A short cesophagus continues into a 
spacious but simple stomach. Quite at the hind end of the body the 
short zfesténe leads to the anus. The whole alimentary canal, as in 
the cockroach, lies in the cavity of the body and there are no mesen- 
teries. Immediately below the ectoderm there is a thick layer of 
circular muscles, internally to which there is a series of longitudinal 
muscles, more or less broken up into dorsal, ventral, and lateral bands, 
