Kirk. — Description of new Pill-Millipede, 139 



made up of numerous tubercles as is the case with A. tube'r- 

 culata (Shaw), and A. gracilis (mihi.) The nearest species is 

 apparently ./. argo, from which it is distinguished by the wing- 

 like processes and other minor differences. 



Art. XXXII. — Description of a new Pill -Millipede. 

 By T. W. Kirk. 



Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 23rd September, 1885.^ 



The Myriapoda have occasioned much diversity of opinion 

 amongst naturalists in time gone by. Some have classed them 

 with insects, some with spiders, and some with Crustacea, for 

 they possess characters allied to each of these ; but the dis- 

 tinction of a separate class is now generally accorded them, 

 and this class is divided into four orders. 1. Chilopoda, contains 

 the carnivorous centipedes. II. Ohilognailia, the vegetable- 

 eating millipedes (Iulidce), the gaily worms (Polydesmus), and the 

 pill-millipedes. III. The third order was created for the reception 

 of a peculiar little animal, one-twentieth of an inch in length, 

 which possessed characters totally different from those of any 

 member of the two orders previously mentioned. This little 

 creature was discovered and described by Sir J. Lubbock. IV. 

 The fourth order contains that extraordinary genus of animals 

 found in the West Indies, South America, South Africa, and 

 New Zealand ; I refer to the Peripatus. So puzzling are the 

 characters presented by this genus, that it has been at different 

 times referred to the errant annelids, the leeches, the tape- 

 worms and the Myriapoda ; in the last-mentioned it remains 

 for the present. And though its position is by no means 

 satisfactory, it yet appears to be more nearly related to the 

 Myriapods than to any other group. 



The animal to be noticed this evening belongs to the second 

 order, or vegetable-eating millipedes, and will be called Sphcero- 

 therium novcR-zealandioe. 



SpHjEROTHERIUM . 



The segments resemble those of Glomeris, but are fourteen 

 in number, including the head, and twenty-one pairs of legs. 

 Eyes grouped together, and situate on an eminence on each side 

 of the head, just above the insertion of the antenna?. 



Sphcerotheri urn nova-zealandice. 

 Head, coarsely punctured, especially near anterior margin, 

 which is notched in the centre, and strengthened by a ridge, 

 immediately behind which is a transverse groove, and in front a 

 number of yellow and brown hairs ; the groove and the space 

 around is closely but coarsely punctured, the punctures becoming 

 much more distant as the posterior margin is approached. 





