38 Myriapoda of West Africa. 



" Perhaps this Scolopendra is the most inconstant species among 

 all Myriapods, but also very few animals are so common and widely 

 distributed as Sc. morsitans; yet through all its variations the 

 short, flat, marginated pedes anales with three rows of larger 

 spines on the underside of the femora are seldom missed," Kohl- 

 rausch, however, has called attention to the fact that in African 

 specimens the margins are "not very sharp," and as all the other 

 characters of the examples before us, including the number and 

 arrangement of the spines, are those most usual in this species, 

 we can only refer them here. One female from St. Helena differs 

 from the others only in having well-developed margins on the three 

 basal joints of the anal legs. The specimens vary in length from 

 37 to 81 mm., and in color from pale olive-brown with green mar- 

 gins to the segments and ochraceous head and anal legs, to entirely 

 brown with no olive tinge. One of the two young specimens is 

 pale olive-green throughout, the other brown. All the brown 

 specimens appear to have been dried before being put into alcohol. 



