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Show 132 MR. V>. L. SCLATER ON [Feb. 1, collar. P. blainvillii, the species described by Gay from Chili, seems also to be distinct, as posessing only 19 pairs of legs. All the other forms from the above-mentioned localities, including Kennel's second species from Trinidad, seem, so far as one can judge from the descriptions, to resemble one another very closely, except as regards slight variations in the number of pairs of legs. Thus Guilding's species (P. juliformis) is described as possessing 33 pairs of legs ; while the form from Caraccas is said by Dr. Ernst to have 31 pairs in the adult, and only 29 when first born. All my specimens from Demerara of all ages agree in having 30 pairs of legs. Another point in which the Demeraran form seems to differ from the other forms described is that the colour of the antennae is black. This point is not specially mentioned in the descriptions of the other American Peripati. I have also examined the examples of Peripatus in the British Museum. Of all the examples of the genus in the National collection there is only one specimen which seems to resemble m y form; it is that labelled " Peripatus from Dominica, found under logs." The animal in question was obtained in Dominica and presented to the British Museum by the late Mr. G. F. Angas, C.M.Z.S., and has been noticed by Prof. F. Jeffrey Bell (28). The Peripatus from Dominica resembles the Demeraran form in the following points:-the black antennae ; the general colour, so far as can be judged from the spirit-preserved specimens; the number of legs (30 pairs) ; and also in another point which I have not hitherto mentioned, but which seems to offer characters useful for distinguishing the various species : this is the shape of the slits on the under surface of the feet. In all the American specimens examined by me at the British Museum this slit is split-shaped; but in m y specimens and in that from Dominica the openings are in many cases rounded, and sometimes have attached to them a bladder-shaped appendage, as mentioned by Prof. Bell (28). It seems to me therefore that there are only three species of Peripatus yet satisfactorily determined in South America. 1. P. torquatus, Kennel, from Trinidad. 2. P. blainvillii, Gay, from Chili. 3. P. edwardsi, Blanchard (=juliformis, Guilding?), from Cayenne, British Guiana, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and several of the West-India Islands. To these three species must be added a fourth, from Dominica and British Guiana, distinguished by the following points :- (1) The black antennae. (2) Thirty pairs of feet and one pair of oral papillae. (3) The darker and redder colour; the other forms being a dirty brown colour as far as can be seen in the spirit specimens. (4) The rounded openings to the foot-pits. (5) The black marking in the median dorsal line in these forms, which is much more definite than in any of the others from South America. |