6 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. 109 



sizes of armature lie at the two extremes. Females always show 

 stronger armature than males. 



The extent of development of sternal processes between the 3d-6th 

 pau"s of legs has been mentioned commonly in the past. The present 

 study has indicated that these structures are not reliable as taxonomic 

 characters inasmuch as they often vary all the way from total absence 

 to strong development in specimens of the same species collected at 

 the same locality. Females do not show these sternal characters at 

 all. Variations in the postgenital sternites are of no taxonomic value. 



The shape of the preanal scale shows great individual variation but 

 no consistency of taxonomic value. 



Both the body length and body width have also been found to vary 

 greatly and hence theu* use as taxonomic characters is difficult. 

 Females are always larger than males. 



Color has often been used in the past as a specific level character 

 in the Xystodesmidae. Hoffman (1950, 1951), however, has found 

 that color is often at best only a subspecific character in this family. 

 This study tends to confirm his findings (see Brachoria calcaria, new 

 species, p. 15). 



Notes on synonymy: Chamberlin (1943) established Tucoria as a 

 new genus to include the two species described by Causey (1942) as 

 Fontaria ktntuckiana and Cleptoria splendida. Although in both of 

 these species a cingulum divides the telopodite of the male gonopods 

 into two portions just as in Brachoria, Chamberlin believed them to 

 be generically distinct because of the noticeably heavier bulk and 

 greater complexity of the terminal portion of the telopodite. The 

 three other species subsequently described in this genus — T. dynama 

 Chamberlin, T. viridicolens Hoffman, and T. calceata Causey — show 

 this same type of form. All the "Tucoria" species are obviously 

 fairly closely related to each other. The genus has been known only 

 from the State of Kentucky. 



Hoffman (1948b) published a key to the species of Tucoria in which 

 he used the form of the prefemoral spine. Causey (1955) later 

 claimed that this character is the most diagnostic one for the genus. 

 She stated that the spine is always "well-developed, cylindrical, and 

 acute" in Brachoria while it is variable in Tucoria, being "either almost 

 absent, peglike, or triangular." 



The new forms described in the present paper provide evidence that 

 neither of the above characters will hold for genera. The new species 

 Brachoria hoffmani and B. laminata from southwestern Virginia, 

 though not closely resembling any of the previously loiown forms of 

 Tucoria, might on the basis of the bulk of their gonopods be put into 

 that genus. The new species Brachoria turneri, however, presents 

 more of a problem. The form of its gonopods is much more like 



