Twelfth Report of the State Entomologist 301 



The lateral carin^e are yellowish, feebly sulcate with two minute serra- 

 tions, the anterior one bearing a small seta (PI. XV, fig. 4). The rhom- 

 boidal gnathochilarium is re[)resented in fig. 7 of plate XV. The 

 copulatory legs of the male are abruptly flexed and terminate in four 

 slender, curved processes (PI. XV, fig. 6), which are nearly colorless, and 

 vary slightly in form in different individuals. 



In the event of this being a form new to science, it may be known 

 as Leptodesvius falcatus, in allusion to the hook-like shape of the first 

 process of the copulatory legs. This species was also found swarming 

 in soil containing house plants in Albany, N. Y., the following season. 



The Allied Genus Polydesmus. 



It is evidently closely allied to the genus Polydesmus, of which a com- 

 mon form in Europe is Polydesmus complaiiatus, or " the flattened mil- 

 lipede " (fig. 8) — represented by Curtis and other writers as being one 

 of the most destructive of its kind, feed- 

 ing upon the roots of wheat, onions, 

 pansies, and several garden products. 

 Dr. Fitch, in his loth Report on the 



Insects of New York, has given a Fig. 8.— Polydesmus complanatus. slightly 

 , ., , r- 1 1 1 • r enlarged. (From Brehms Tierlebcn.) 



detailed account 01 the habits of one 



of the "flattened centipedes" which he regarded as identical with 

 the European complanatus. It seems, however, to be different, for that 

 species has not been recognized as yet in our country. It is thought 

 that the form that Dr. Fitch wrote of (without any accompanying 

 description) may have been the Polydesmus Canadensis Newport, — ■ 

 figured and briefly described by Dr. Packard in his Guide to the Study 

 of Insects, page 677, and referred by Bollman to Polydesmus serratus 

 Say. He represents it as " crawling everywhere over the damp surface 

 of the ground by night, in search of the nicest, daintiest food it could 

 discover and withdrawing into the crevices under chips, stones, and 

 similar situations during the daytime." The underside of cucumbers 

 lying on the damp ground were often almost covered with them and the 

 skin much eaten. The roots of onions when lifted were found eaten 

 entirely off by them — completely arresting the growth of the bulb. From 

 finding many of the worms in the stalks of cabbage distorted with warty 

 swellings and cracks, Dr. Fitch was led to believe that they were the 

 cause of the disease known as " anbury " or '• club-foot " in cabbage. 



