306 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. 117 



such as Cruzodesmus, Acentronus, Cihularia, Howellaria, Stenodesmus, 

 and Boraria, which are distinguished by apparently trivial characters 

 of the gonopods that scarcely would be considered as specific in genera 

 such as Nannaria, Brachoria, and Sigmoria. 



It, therefore, becomes necessary to rely heavily upon nonsexual 

 characters in the definition of rhysodesmine genera and, furthermore, 

 to utilize a variety of characters taken in combination to achie^^e this 

 purpose. As a result, generic distinctions are perhaps more subtle 

 than usual but certainly of equal importance with single gonopod 

 characters such as those which separate Apheloria from Brachoria or 

 Pachydesmus from Dicellarius. 



Students of the Diplopoda who regard gonopodal characters as 

 the sine qua non for generic recognition may disagree with this point 

 of view, and so it may be well to restate my conviction that characters 

 of taxonomic importance vary considerably from one group to another 

 and that we must judge each group on its own merits and not by 

 the rigid appHcation of some traditional Procrustean formula. A 

 colleague, C. A. W. Jeekel, has expressed to me the opinion, with which 

 I agree entirely, that, from the taxonomic point of view, small varia- 

 tions in the shape of a basically simple gonopod may well be as signifi- 

 cant as large-order variations affecting more complex gonopods. I 

 think that this view applies very aptly to the Rhysodesmini. In a 

 future paper, now in preparation, 1 shall consider the genera of Mexico 

 and the western United States, the classification of which, T might 

 add, is in a state of the greatest confusion. The present paper treats 

 four species of the eastern United States that have been referred to 

 the genera Boraria and Howellaria. 



Review of the literature. — The first species of Boraria to have 

 been described scientifically was collected in western North Carohna 

 by the arachnologist Eugene Simon and was named by H. W. Brole- 

 mann (1896) as Fontaria tennesseensis var. stricta. Four years later, 

 realizing that stricta was not related closely to Bollman's species 

 tennesseensis, Brolemann raised his form to the rank of a full species 

 of Fontaria. Despite the good (and readily available) original descrip- 

 tion, this name fell into obscurity until 1958^ when it was resurrected 

 and allocated to Boraria (Chamberlin and Hoffman, 1958). 



In 1918, R. V. Chamberlin named another Appalachian form under 

 the combination Nannaria media. Since the description of A^. media 

 did not include illustrations of the gonopods, this form promptly fell 



3 Graf Attems was of course cognizant of the name stricta but did not mention 

 it in print between 1899 (as Fontaria stricta) and 1938, when he referred it to the 

 genus Rhysodesmus. 



