Abstract
CONSIDERING the great antiquity and importance of Peripatus it seems desirable to make a public notification of the fact that I have found a species, apparently Peripatus Edwardsi, in the Demerara division of British Guiana. Four specimens were obtained by me, but three of them, owing to some unknown cause, became considerably damaged and practically useless. The fourth specimen, which was found by me nearly a month ago, is still alive and evidently in good health. It is, when in progression, about 31/2 inches in length, but it often elongates itself considerably more and at other times becomes nearly coiled into a thick lump. It possesses thirty-one pairs of feet, the last three of which it rarely puts to the ground except when it goes backwards for short distances. Several other pairs at intervals along the body are carried off the ground in the same manner. It seems distinctly restless under the influence of light, appearing comfortable only when it retreats into some moist and darkened corner. When handled, it frequently discharges its viscid secretion, but as frequently neglects to do it when handled for the first time after a long interval, but more especially when touched or taken up for three or four times in rapid succession. It has been kept in an old sardine tin with small pieces of decayed wood, which were taken from the stump in which it was found, and the wood is kept in a moist condition. The locality from which it was obtained was the Hoorubea Creek, about twenty miles from Georgetown, on the east coast of the Demerara River, close to the meeting-point of an extensive forest and a water savannah. The four specimens were obtained in the same locality; and, though I have sought for them continually in other places, up to the present I have been unable to find others. From the long period of time during which this specimen has survived in confinement, I think there will be no difficulty, when I have obtained a large number of specimens, in sending them alive to England to Prof. Moseley and others. Unfortunately I have no possible access here to any literature on the group. I do not think it is generally known, but Mr. Im Thurn has once previously found specimens of Peripatus in the Essequebo division of British Guiana. His specimens were, however, very small ones.
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QUELCH, J. Peripatus in Demerara. Nature 34, 288 (1886). https://doi.org/10.1038/034288a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/034288a0
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