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president’s ADDRESS SECTION D. 
the amateur, by the beautiful velvety texture of the skin and the 
large number of claw-bearing legs (fourteen to sixteen pairs in 
Australasian species). When first revealed by the removal of its 
shelter it appears lying quite still and motionless, apparently fast 
asleep. Gradually, however, the animal wakes up and stretches itself 
out, and when it has got all its legs into proper working order it can 
run at no inconsiderable speed. The colour and markings vary much, 
even within the same species. Thus in the larger Victorian species 
the prevailing colour ranges from a rich reddish-brown to a dark blue- 
black, though all the varieties appear to be dedueible from one 
typical pattern. 
The head is well provided with sense organs, consisting of a pair 
of beautifully ringed and highly sensitive antennae, with a pair of very 
complex eves near their bases. The mouth, surrounded by white 
tumid lips and provided with a pair of horny jaws, is situated on the 
lower surface of the head, and on each side of it is a prominent u oral 
papilla,” bearing the aperture of a large gland which secretes the 
sticky fluid which the animal discharges at its prey. This fluid 
hardens in contact with the air, and firmly adheres to objects which it 
touches. 
Captain Hutton, in his description of Peripatus novee-zealandice, 
makes the following interesting observations on their habits : — “ They 
are nocturnal, but will feed in the daytime when hungry. They feed 
upon animals. I have seen one shoot out its viscid fluid from the 
oral papilla? at a fly introduced into the jar in which it was confined, 
and stick it down; it then went up and sucked its juices, rejecting 
the whole of the integument.”* 
Nearly all the known species of Peripatus bear their young alive 
and very “fully developed, the period of gestation extending over 
thirteen months. Until recently this was believed to be the universal 
rule, but, as I shall have occasion to show presently, tho larger Vic- 
torian species forms a notable exception, in that it lays eggs with 
exquisitely sculptured shells, from which the young emerge only after 
an interval of many months. g . 
The great interest attaching to Peripatus lies in the fact that it 
appears to form a sort of connecting link between the segmented 
worms and the insects, or, to speak more exactly, the Tracheata. Ihe 
most important vermian character is the presence of excretory organs 
in the form of segmentally arranged nephridia, which are never found 
in true Tracheata. The slit-like openings of these funnel-shaped 
nephridia are easily seen on the under surface at the bases of the legs, 
and the nephridia themselves agree closely in general characters with 
those of such animals as the earthworm. To my mind, however, the 
tracbeate characters of Peripatus far outweigh the vermian, lor the 
animal agrees with the former and differs from the latter group m 
such important features as the possession of tracheal tubes for 
respiratory organs ; the presence of claw-hearing appendages and the 
formation of the jaws by modification of some of these ; the presence 
of ringed antenna?; the very feeble development of ihe circulatory 
organs, and the presence of a tubular dorsal heart with paired ostia. 
The fact that one species lays eggs with definitely sculptured 
* “ On Peripatus novce-sealandice ” — Annals and Magazine of Natural History, 
November, 1870. 
