Mr. Newport on the Class Myriapoda, Order Chilopoda. 431 



antennae a little shorter and less hairy than others ; the anal styles large, thick, 

 and clavated ; and only fifty-one, two, or three pairs of legs. These indivi- 

 duals, I believe, are the males, as those which have fifty-four or five pairs of 

 legs are most certainly the females. I am supported in this opinion by the 

 circumstance, that of two individuals presented to me by F. Bond, Esq., and 

 which had been found by him in contact with each other at the end of the 

 month of October, one specimen had but fifty-one pairs of legs, with the anal 

 styles clavated, while the other had fifty-five. The specimens preserved by 

 Dr. Leach, in the British Museum, have, with one exception, fifty-four or fifty- 

 five pairs of legs. Often other specimens, collected at Wimbledon, those which 

 have the greatest number of legs, fifty-five pairs, have the anal styles slender ; 

 while those with the smallest number, fifty-one to fifty-three, have them large 

 and clavated, and the antennae shorter than in the other individuals. These 

 circumstances are confirmatory of the opinion that those with from fifty-one 

 to fifty-three pairs of legs are males. This is an interesting fact, and proves 

 that this species most certainly is not the Scolopendra electrica of Linnaeus, as 

 it has been thought to be by M. Gervais. The Linnean species is described as 

 " pedlbusque utrinque 70." Another circumstance equally interesting is, that 

 both the individuals, when found by Mr. Bond, were luminous. This seems to 

 indicate that luminosity is common to more than one species of Geophilldce, 

 and perhaps to the wbole family, and that it is evolved at the season of copu- 

 lation. There is, I think, further reason for believing this to be the case, from 

 the circumstance that I myself once found two individuals of this species on 

 the ground in contact with each other, and which shone almost as brightly as 

 the glow-worm, for which at the instant I mistook them. This was at mid- 

 night on the 25th of September. On taking the specimens into my hand the 

 luminous matter was exuded and adhered to my fingers, and continued to 

 shine for some time like phosphoi'us. The individuals appeared to be able to 

 give it forth at pleasure. I omitted to examine these individuals to ascertain 

 whether they were the two sexes*. 



* The property of giving out light at certain seasons appears to be common to some tropical as well 

 as to European Geophili. Oviedo, the friend and companion of Columbus, and who, about twenty 

 years after the discovery of America, published a History of the Indies, mentions this property most 

 distinctly when noticing the existence of Scolopendra in the Island of St. Domingo, as we find in the 



VOL. XIX. 3 L 



