BY J. J. FLETCHER. 
183 
eastern form is to be regarded as a species distinct from what we 
must now consider to be P. leuckarti, Sang., then the western form 
also, as it seems to me, ought to be so regarded. I would prefer 
to consider the latter an intermediate form, as at present Austra- 
lia would, I think, be over-supplied with as many as four species. 
Seeing that many more specimens have had their legs counted, 
than have had the jaw blades examined, and that in two examples 
from New South Wales, in one or both outer blades there is more 
than one accessory tooth, — in one case three on the jaw blade 
of one side; in another the accessory tooth, longer and blunter 
than usual, is followed by several serrations; in both examples 
the peculiarities are reproduced in the reserve teeth — it seems 
probable that unlocked for variation may be found. Further, 
Dr. Dendy has recently recognised as a var. of P. novce-zealandim 
a New Zealand Peripatus with 16 pairs of walking legs*; so that 
the idea that in this species the number of feet is " fixed," must 
now be given up. Therefore the most satisfactory arrangement, 
in my opinion, would be to consider all the known Australian 
specimens of Peripatus as referable to one comprehensive species 
with four varieties as follows : — 
Peripatus leuckarti, Sang. 
With 14 or with 15 pairs of claw-bearing ambulatory legs. 
Outer jaw-blades without or with an accessory tooth, occasionally 
more, at the base of the main tooth. Males smaller than the 
females; with a pair of (accessory gland) pores close together, 
situated between the genital papilla and the anus; with a white 
or sometimes bluish tubercle — on which opens the crural gland — 
on each leg of the first pair only, or of the last pair only, or of all 
or only some of the pairs with the exception of the first, or of the 
first five. 
Colour varying from dark blue or almost so, so dark sometimes 
as to appear blackish, with a still darker median dorsal line in 
the centre of which lies a fine unpigmented groove; to alternate 
Ann. Mag. N. H. (6) Vol. xiv., Dee. 1894, p. 401. 
