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



regarded the Myriapoda as closely connected with the Thysanoura*, to which 



he joined them by means of the genus Forbicina, Geoff. ; while Strauss agrees 



with De Blainville in opinion respecting the affinity which exists between the 



Myriapoda and Annelida f, but conceives the transition to be found in Pol- 



lyjcemts on the one hand, and Eunice and its affinities on the other ; and he 



has also remarked, with Latreille and Duges, that the Myriapoda have some 



close relations with the Thysanoura. A more recent authority, M. Brandt J, 



who has paid very close attention to these animals, regards them as connected 



directly with true insects ; and in this opinion he is supported, as he remarks, by 



the Committee appointed to examine a work recently presented by M. Gervais 



to the Institute of France. 



After an attentive examination of the Myriapoda, as compared with other 

 Artkulata, I have been unable entirely to adopt the views of anv one of the 

 distinguished naturalists above noticed, either in regard to the situation 

 which they ought to occupy in the arrangement of the Invertebrata, or to 

 the affinities by which they are connected with the other classes. They cer- 

 tainly have many close relations to the larva state of true insects in the 

 elongated form of the body ; in their mode of respiration, in the structure of 

 the organs of circulation and nutrition, and also in the arrangement of their 

 nervous system; but they differ from them entirely in their mode of growth 

 and development. 



The Myriapoda, as just stated, acquire a periodical addition of segments 

 and legs, with their separate ganglia, nerves and other structures. This 

 add,t.on of new parts, at each change of tegument, takes place in all the 

 yiyrmpoda „p to a certain period of their growth, which period varies in 

 different genera. But this addition of parts never occurs in Insects, even in 

 the lowest forms of the class, or even in their earliest stages, after leaving the 

 ovum. Every entomologist is aware that »U ,„;...., ,. , .. 8 . 



ty entomologist is aware that when an insect bursts from the egg it 

 with the whole number of segments and legs it is ever 

 and ,n no instancedoes the number of segments exceed fifteen. The usu 



n in n J * *T nUmbe '' ° f •* meBto and ^ * is «~ » P— 



be, mZT c number ° f segments exceed fifteen - Tb « «-i "«'"- 



be,, thuteen, as naturabsts are we., aware, is very rare.y exceeded , although 



* Nouvelles Annates du Museum, i. p. 175 



t Considerations Generates sur r Anatomie des Animaux articules 4to 1828 „ Tr 



♦ Recued de Moires relatifs a l W des Insectes MyHapodtCl ' * 



