‖ Peripatus2 Zool.
(pəˈrɪpətəs)
[mod.L., a. Gr. περίπατος (one) walking about: see prec.]
A remarkable genus of Arthropods, constituting the family Peripatidæ (sometimes considered as a separate order or class, Protracheata, held to represent a primitive ancestral type of both myriapods and insects). The species are worm-like creatures with a pair of antennæ, a pair of jaws, and numerous legs, inhabiting damp places among decaying wood and the like, in the West Indies and Central America, South Africa, Australasia, and New Zealand. Hence peˈripatid, peripaˈtidean, peˈripatoid adjs., of, pertaining or allied to Peripatus.
The animal was found at St. Vincent by Rev. L. Guilding, and described by him under this name in Zool. Jrnl. II. 443 (1826) as a new genus of Mollusca.
| 1840 tr. Cuvier's Anim. Kingd. 397. 1847 Carpenter Zool. §839 Lastly, we may mention a very curious genus Peripatus, which is probably to be placed in this order [Annelidæ]. 1878 Bell Gegenbaur's Comp. Anat. 237 Peripatus has a simple form of body very similar to that of the Annulata. 1888 Rolleston & Jackson Anim. Life 522. |