Mr. Newport on the Class Myriapoda, Order Chilopoda. 373 



Family 3, Scolopendrellid^, mihi. 



Additional Remarks. — Read March 4th, 1845. 



[Since the publication of the Synopsis Generum of Myriapoda, in the last 

 part of the Society's Transactions, I have found it necessary, on a closer ex- 

 amination of M. Gervais' genus Scolopendrella, to alter the place assigned to 

 it in the arrangement of the class, and to make it the type of a distinct family. 

 In the Synopsis Generum, and also in the systematic description of the species, 

 read to the Society in March last, I had connected this genus with the Geo- 

 phili, and regarded it as a subfamily, Scolopendrellinoe ; and had included in 

 the genus a new species by the name of Scolopendrella immaculata. The con- 

 necting of this genus with the Geophilidce was in deference to the views of 

 M, Gervais, who discovered the type, and who seems to have regarded the 

 short alternating segments of the body, and the existence of anal styles, as the 

 connecting affinities. But on more closely examining the characters of Scolo- 

 pendrella, as given by M. Gervais, and comparing them with those of my new 

 species, I find that they indicate a much higher type of development than the 

 Geophilidce, and very nearly approach the Lithobiidce. One of the most marked 

 indications of this affinity is in the very short, basilar segment of the head, 

 which in the new species, S. immaculata, not only gives attachment to the 

 mandibles, as in Lithobius, but also to a diminutive pair of legs, as in Scolo- 

 pendra. These legs, attached to the basilar segment, have entirely disappeared 

 in the Lithobiidce. In other very marked characters, as in the number and 

 alternation of long and short segments to the body, and the imbrication, elon- 

 gation of the angles, and excavation of the posterior margin of the dorsal 

 plates, the ScolopendrelUdce approach very closely to the Lithobiidce, in which 

 these latter characters are seldom or ever wanting ; but they are never found 

 in any of the Geophilidce. 



I propose therefore to establish the ScolopendrelUdce as a separate family, 

 and to place them next after the Lithobiidce. This view of the position which 

 the ScolopendrelUdce ought to occupy in the arrangement of the class is sup- 

 ported by their mode of development and growth, which is very similar to that 

 oi Lithobius. Thus I have obtained some specimens of the species discovered by 

 myself in the neighbourhood of London, with only twelve joints to the antennae, 



