60 ON GEOPHILTJS ATTENUATES, SAY— COOK. vol. xviii. 



is "reddish-ferruginous," aud the head of Crypiops is "reddish-brown," 

 and the body "white." Thus, if we take Say's statement at face 

 value, its application is not so difficult. Only one reddish-brown 

 Geophilns is known from Europe and ^STortli Africa, GeopJiilus ferru- 

 (fineuSj C. L. Koch. In view of the fact that no Geoiihilidfe common 

 to the two continents had then been rei^orted, it was something of a 

 surprise to me, three or four years since, to find a specimen of Oeophllus 

 ferrngineus in a bottle of jNIyriajJoda collected in the vicinity of Phila- 

 delphia. This was dissected and carefully compared with the descrip- 

 tions of the various European authors, and with Swedish specimens of 

 G./crruginexs, also dissected. In 1893 1 collected several specimens near 

 St. Michaels, on the eastern peninsula of Maryland, some of them under 

 stones and rotting wood, some under bark of decaying locust (i?o?>/«/«). 

 The reddish-brown color of the living animals is noticeably different 

 from that of any other (leophilidai I have collected in Xorth America. 

 This species corresponds even in hahitut v^ith Mecistocejyhalnsfnlviis, 

 Wood. The only discrepancy of importance seems to be that of the 

 number of legs. Wood gives 57, while none of my American specimens 

 have more than 49, most of them 47.^ In the Canary Islands, however, 

 I collected numerous examples of this species with 57, aud some with 

 59 legs. That Wood should describe this species under Mecistocephalus 

 need not be a matter of surprise if we consider that he was dealing 

 with the type of that genus. Tlius the genus Pachymerium, C. L. Koch, 

 being founded on the same species, is identical with Mechtocephalns^ 

 Newport. It is an error to cite Newport as the author of the genus as 

 employed by recent writers. As constituted by Newport it was based 

 entirely ux)on the length of the ceiihalic lamina, and was no more natural 

 a group than the genera of C. L. Koch ; to have been consistent, Meiuert 

 should have set it aside, as he did Koch's genera. However, G. atfenu- 

 atus is a species differing from GeopMIu.s as represented by carpnphagus 

 sufficiently to merit generic recognition. The synonymy of the genus 

 and the species will then stand as follows: 



Genus MECISTOCEPHALUS, Newport. 



Mecistocephalus, Newport, Proc. Zool. Soc, London, CXIX, p. 177,- 1842. 

 Pachymerium, C. L. Kocii, System der Myriapoden, pp. 85, 187, 1847. 

 Geophilus (pp.) Meinert, Latzel, etc. 



Cephalic lamina long and narrow; frontal lamina distinct; basal 

 lamina narrow; prosternal teeth evident; claw of preheusorial feet, 

 with a strong tooth at base; coxa toothed. Ventral i)ores inconspicu- 

 ous; last sternum narrow; pleural pores numerous, pigmented; anal 

 legs slightly crassate in the male, clawed. Anal pores present. 



• It is evident from the fact that Wood, frequently ascribes an even number of legs 

 to his Geophilidiv that they Avere not too carefully counted. It is also easy to make 

 a mistake of ten in counting. 



-Latzel's citation of Trans. Linn. 8oe. London. XIX, 1844, for this genus (Ost.-Ung. 

 Myr. I, p. 15), is an error which that author has himself corrected on p. IGO. 



