ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
59 
7, Prototracheata. 
Australian Peripatus.* — Mr. J. J. Fletcher returns to the question 
of the specific identity of the Australian Peripatus usually supposed to 
he P. leuckarti Saenger. The difficulties with regard to this species 
are originally due, no doubt, to the fact that Saenger’s description 
was published in the Russian language. Prof. Spencer, when in 
England, had the original account translated, and it is owing to this, 
that Mr. Fletcher has been able to speak with greater definiteness than 
heretofore. He thinks that the most satisfactory arrangement would 
be to consider all the known Australian species of Peripatus as referable 
to one comprehensive species with four varieties. He gives a dia- 
gnosis of the species and distinguishes as varieties, typica , occidentalism 
orientalise and a Victorian Peripatus which he leaves to be dealt with by 
Prof. Dendy. 
Prof. A. Dendy f gives an account of P. oviparus, the general internal 
anatomy of which conforms to the usual condition as described in other 
species. He has satisfied himself, however, that the oviparous Victorian 
form is certainly worthy of a distinctive name, and he now gives a 
description by which it is to be hoped this bone of contention may be 
easily recognised. 
8. Arachnida. 
Development of Spinning Apparatus.^ — Herr A. Jaworowski finds 
in Trochosa singoriensis Laxm., that the exopodites of the fourth 
pair of abdominal appendages form the anterior pair of spinnerets, and 
those of the fifth pair the posterior spinnerets, that the endopodites of 
the fourth pair degenerate, while those of the fifth pair form the median 
spinnerets. The cribellum, which is rudimentary and transitory in 
Trochosa , seems referable to the endopodites of the fourth pair of 
abdominal appendages. The spinning glands arise as ectodermic in- 
vaginations on the spinnerets. 
Jaworowski also traces the evolution of the combing claws from 
simple setae. The calamistrum, like the cribellum, is absent in the 
adult Trochosa, but its rudiment is seen at an early stage, before the 
embryo is covered with hair. It is marked by a strong calamistrum 
nerve which runs up the fourth leg and ends in a ganglionic bulb just 
beneath the cuticle. As a similar nerve, weaker and slightly different, 
occurs in the first three legs, the hypothesis is suggested that the 
endings of these nerves represent ancestral sensory organs. 
The author holds that the pulmonary sacs represent the anterior 
portions of embryonic tracheae, and that gills represent evaginations of 
pulmonary lamellae. The Araneina are related to the Tracheata, not to 
the Xiphosura ; and the Crustacea are brought nearer the Tracheato 
stock. Similar speculations are suggested as to the homologies of 
Arthropod appendages and parapodia, the skin-glands of Arthropods, 
and the parapodial glands of Annelids. 
* Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., x. (1895) pp. 172-94. 
t Tom. cit., pp. 195-200. 
X Zeitschr. f. wiss. Zool., xxx. (1895) pp. 39-71 (2 pis.). 
