| OCR Text |
Show 1887.] PERIPATUS FROM BRITISH GUIANA. 131 the contents were dried up. Of the Peripati which I obtained twenty individuals were brought to England alive, but were unfortunately found to be much affected by the cold, and were therefore killed and preserved immediately on arrival. I also brought with me four other specimens that had been preserved in British Guiana. All the specimens which I obtained were females, and all of them contained embryos. All tbe specimens examined, both large and small, including those taken from the uterus, were found to have 30 pairs of legs, and of course a pair of oral papillae. In this respect they differ from the form of Caraccas described by Ernst, in which, as he states, the young ones have only 29 pairs of legs, while the adult specimens possess 31 pairs. The colour of the Demeraran Peripatus is a dark brick-red above and pinkish below with a dark suffused median line on the dorsal surface, such as Ernst (25) described in his specimens. The antennae are very much darker than the rest of the body, in fact they are quite black. The body, as in all other forms of Peripatus, is divided into numerous rings by lines of small warts, about 10 to 12 rings going to each segment; the legs and antennae are also ringed, and the former bear the usual pair of hooks. In the living animal the colour is intermediate between the colour of the two specimens now exhibited-that preserved in spirit being of a darker, and that preserved in Pereney l fluid being of a lighter hue, than that of the living animal. The adult specimens vary from 225 to about 2*50 inch in length. It is useless to give exact measurements, since not only do the animals contract when preserved in spirit, but even the living animals vary greatly in size at different times. The question as to what species the Demeraran Peripatus should be referred is by no means an easy one. Specimens of Peripatus have been obtained from the following places in the West Iudies and South and Central America :- (1) St. Vincent's, W . I. ; with 33 pairs of legs. Guilding (1). (2) Cayenne ; with 29 pairs of legs. Audouin and Milne-Edwards (2) (3) Lake of Valencia, Venezuela. Wiegmann (4). (4) Chili. Gay (12). (5) St. Thomas, W . I. Moritz (5). (6) Colonia de Tovar, Venezuela. Grube (II). (7) Santarem, Amazons ; 31 pairs of legs. Moseley (22). (8) Nicaragua. Belt (17). (9) Caraccas, Venezuela. Ernst (25). (10) Trinidad (2 species). Kennel (30) and (31). (11) Island of Marajo, Amazons. Branner (34). (12) Dominica. Bell (28). (13) Porto Rico. Peters (23). P. torquatus, a species discovered by Kennel (31) in Trinidad, and described by him, is easily distinguished by its large size (15 mm.), the number of its pairs of legs (41-42), and by its yellow 1 Pereney fluid is a hardening fluid composed of chromic acid -5 p. c. sol., 3 parts ; nitric acid 10 p. c. sol., 4 parts; spirit 90 p. c, 3 parts. |
