1885.] lb' J [Meinert. 



joints are regarded as homologous with corresponding joints of 

 the limbs of the Insects, in this manner : — the first joint is ex- 

 plained to he the coxa, the second the trochanter, the third the 

 femur, the fourth the tibia, and the last three joints to be the 

 tarsus or the foot. (Compare also Latzel, 1. c.,p. 12.) As far as 

 number goes, this explanation is very excellent, particularly as 

 most insects have the same number of divisions, five, and a great 

 multitude of insects precisely three joints in the foot, but in 

 reality it is very superficial and incorrect. Thus, when we re- 

 gard the limbs of insects as the props which support the body 

 and carry it over the ground, four divisions are necessary, viz : 

 the first, by which the prop is fastened to the body, i. e. the 

 coxa; the second, which extends the prop beyond the median 

 line of the animal, i. e. the femur (and the trochanter) ; the third, 

 by which the body is raised from the ground, i. e. the tibia ; and 

 the fourth which supplies the necessary hold upon the ground, 

 i. e., the tarsus. Yet it will clearly appear that the matter de- 

 pends on the arrangement and not on the number or the series 

 of the joints ; for the number varies not only in the fourth divis- 

 ion, the tarsus, but also in the second (the femur). But still, no 

 one has ever regarded the femur as a tibia, when, the trochanter 

 being bipartite, as in many Hymenoptera, the femur became the 

 fourth and not, as is usual, the third joint in the limb, nor the 

 tibia as the first joint of the tarsus, in the same case. Yet of 

 these four divisions, the second is usually divided into two, the 

 fourth into from two to five joints, beside the claw or claws. The 

 third division, the tibia, is unipartite, or whole, in the true In- 

 sects, but in the Spiders, it is bipartite, and the joints here are 

 denominated "patella" and "tibia"; so also in the Chilopoda. 

 Among the Chilopoda, however, no genus can prove more 

 clearly than Seutigera that the fifth and fourth joints are of 

 one set, and that the fifth joint cannot be referred to the 

 tarsus, as well as the sixth and the seventh, for in this 

 genus, the fifth and sixth joints are bent into an angle, and are 

 also very different in structure; furthermore, the fifth joint is, 

 like the tibia of the true Insects, formed with distinct, although 

 small, calcars. The two joints of which the tarsus of the Chilo- 

 pods thus consists, are most frequently separated, more or less 

 distinctly, but often, as in the Geophili and in some Scolopen- 



