Vol. xxiv] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. !2I 



Notes on Chilopoda from the Galapagos Islands. 



By RALPH Y. CHAMBERLIN, Museum of Comparative Zoology, 



Cambridge, Mass. 



A study of a small collection of Chilopods from the Gala- 

 pagos Islands has revealed five species, of which one, Scolo- 

 pcndra galapagocnsis, has been previously reported. Of these 

 five species, the three geophiloids are well-known forms occur- 

 ring widespread in the warm regions of both hemispheres, 

 while the two scolopendroids, so far as now known, appear to 

 be strictly indigenous. The Cryptops is here described for 

 the first time. 



Whether the geophiloids mentioned may have been intro- 

 duced in recent times upon ships it is difficult to say; but it 

 seems certainly entirely possible for them to have reached the 

 islands through other agencies than that of man. The resist- 

 ence of geophiloids to submersion in both fresh and salt 

 water is strikingly greater than that of at least some scolopen- 

 drids, this being true not only of the so-called marine forms 

 living normally between tide-marks, such as Hydroschcnd\la, 

 <md of those of littoral habit, such as Pectiniungids arnericamis, 

 but also of those of essentially terrestrial habit. This superior 

 resistence of geophiloids has been experimentally demonstrated 

 by Plateau* who found that, while Cryptops punctatus had but 

 feeble resistence to submersion in sea water, being dead after 

 a very few hours, Gcophihis longicornis might, under favorable 

 temperature conditions, survive complete submersion after re- 

 moval of every trace of adhering air bubbles for from 12 to 

 72 hours ; and, similarly, that while Cryptops might withstand 

 a submersion in fresh water of 6 hours, Geophilns longicornis 

 and G. sodalis might be alive after from 6 to 15 days. It is 

 reasonable to suppose that the resistence of forms habituated 

 to the littoral life and to consequent frequent submersions 

 would be found to be materially greater than that of these ter- 

 restrial species, and that, were the submersion not continuous 



* Plateau, Les Myr. marins et la Resistance des Arthropodes a respira- 

 tion aerienne a la submersion. Journal de 1'Anat. et de la Physiologic, 

 Paris, 1890, 26, pp. 236-269. 



