BY J. J. FLETCHER. 
173 
kann den bis jetzt bekannten Arten dieses G-eschlechts gleichfalls 
eine neue Form aus Australien mit 16 Beinpaaren hinzufiigen).* 
It is to be noted that in mentioning the Cape species as "mit 
17 Paar Beinen,"f Leuckart was simply quoting Frauenfeld, who 
had seen the animal alive, had witnessed the copious discharge of 
tenacious slime, " aus dem abgestutzten Ende der beiden kurzen 
unten den Stirnfiihlern liegenden Mundfuhlern," and who, there- 
fore, excluded the oral papilla? — as Moseley afterwards called them 
— when counting the legs. But in regard to the Australian 
Peripatus, it seems evident that Prof. Leuckart intentionally 
included the oral papilla? among the 16 pairs, but without indi- 
cating the fact. For, some years later in noticing Hutton's paper 
he remarks of P. novce-zealandice that like P. leuckarti, Sang., it 
possesses "15 Beinpaare." Now Hutton had expressly said 
" fifteen pairs of ambulatory legs, and a pair of oral papilla?." 
Allowing for this, however, there would still seem to have been 
some misapprehension on Prof. Leuckart's part as to the exact 
number of claw-bearing legs possessed by his specimen — as the 
sequel will show. 
Subsequently Prof. Leuckart entrusted his specimen of the 
Australian Peripatus to EL Sanger, who embodied a description 
of it in a paper dealing in some detail with the anatomy of P. 
eapensis, contributed to the " Moskauer Naturforscherversamm- 
lung "in 1869. Unfortunately Sanger chose the Russian language 
as his medium of publication, and in consequence his paper for 
some twenty-five years has been practically buried. Indeed 
but for two brief references to it by Prof. Leuckart in the Archiv 
f. Naturgeschi elite, its existence even, as well as its contents, 
might very well have remained unknown to this day. The bulky 
* Archiv f. JNTaturgesch. Jahrg. xxvii., 1862, ii Bd., p. 235. 
tFrauenfeld's specimens were afterwards dealt with by Grube, who 
described them as P. eapensis (" Reise der Novara"). He says there were 
three specimens, two with 17 pairs of claw-bearing legs, the third with 18 
pairs. He did not attach specific importance to the difference in the num- 
ber of legs, whence the " pedes uncinigeri utrinque 17 vel 18 verrucosi " of 
his description. 
