A literal is how a particular value is represented in Perl.
More valuable advices in the Perlstyle documentation.
In fact the scalar variable $replicants is a different variable, though for the sake of clarity it is better to avoid having arrays and scalar variables with the same name.
Only valid for Perl 5.12 and later versions.
Perl notes
$Id: perl_notes.sgml,v 1.3 2011/12/12 15:41:58 curro Exp curro $francisco.perez@dfaie.uhu.es