1936 ] 
Peripatus in Jamaica 
121 
men of Plicatoperipatus jamaicensis was found beneath a 
rock near Morce’s Gap. This gap is located between John 
Crow Peak and Bellevue Peak in the Parish of Portland at 
an elevation of 4,980 feet. It is but two miles north of the 
Cinchona plantation and through it passes the trail which 
leads from Silver Hill to Orange Bay. It is located in the 
region of perpetual rain-forest with an annual rainfall of 
105.70 inches (Shreve, 1914). The specimen herein de- 
scribed was found only about one hundred yards from the 
gap, beside the trail which leads to Trafalgar Gap, the 
“Vinegar Hill Trail.” Upon turning a rock the animal was 
seen crawling about slowly on a bare stone in the neigh- 
borhood of a few dead leaves. The ground was somewhat 
dry at this time, there having been no rain for several days. 
The specimen was induced to crawl upon a leaf and was 
then placed in an 8 oz. collecting jar without handling. 
However, when a portion of the animal’s skin touched the 
collecting bottle a whitish substance was given off at the 
point of contact and two large drops also appeared at the 
openings of the mucous glands on the oral papillse. An ex- 
amination of the bottle revealed that it was one in which 
an alcoholic specimen had previously been kept and that it 
still retained a slight trace of alcohol odor. The Peripatus 
was immediately transferred to a clean bottle in which it 
was carried without harm for the rest of the day. The por- 
tion of the body which had come into contact with the wall 
of the first bottle formed a whitish blister-like swelling, 
however, which may be seen in the photographs (Fig. 2) 
and still remains in the preserved specimen. The animal 
was collected at about 2 P.M. on July 21. It was carried 
about during the rest of the day*S\ collecting and was suc- 
cessfully transported to Chester Vale, some three miles dis- 
tant, where it was photographed the same afternoon. It 
was kept in a large jar with a plentiful supply of dead 
leaves, the jar being wrapped in a moist cloth to give cool- 
ness and darkness. Here it remained quite active, moving 
about among the leaves and seemingly carrying on a nor- 
mal existence. On July 27 it was preserved in Bouin’s 
Fluid for sectioning. Before being preserved it was killed 
by exposure to the fumes of chloroform. At this time it 
