]//■. Nku-port on the Class Myriapoda, Order ( bilopoda. 131 



antenna- a little shorter and letl hairy that. others | the anal *) let large, t hick. 



and clamed; and only fifty-one, two, or three pain of lege. Then Indirl 



duals, I believe, are the males. BS thote which have fifty. four or ftv( pail 



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

 circumstance, that of two individuals presented to „„■ by P. 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 legf, uitl, tl„ . 

 styles davated, while the other had fifty-five, Thr ipecimens | I bj 



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

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



have the greatest number of legs, fifty-five pairs, bare the anal Styles llend 

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

 and clavated, and the antenna- 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 met, and pi< 

 that this species most certainly is not the Scolopendra electric* of LinneHN 

 it has been thought to be by M.Oervais. The Linnean species fe described as 

 " pedibusque utrinque /0." Another circumstance equally interesting k that 

 both the individuals, when found by Mr. liond, nere luminous. This seems to 

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

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

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

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

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

 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 band the 

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

 shine for some time like phosphorus. 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 wdl 

 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 

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



VOL. XIX. 3 L 



