IX. CONTRIBITTIONS TO A KNOWLEDGE 



OF THE ORIENTAL DIPLOPODA 



O N I S C O M O R P H A . 



I. The Family Glomeridae. 



By F. SiLVESTRi {Portici, Italy). 



The authorities of the Indian Museum have kindly sent me 

 a collection of Oriental, especially Indian, Diplopoda for identifica- 

 tion. From these I began the study of the Oniscomorpha with a 

 view to attempt a revision of the group and to catalogue the extra- 

 European species described up to date. I treat in this paper of 

 the family Glomeridae, of which I have been able to examine speci- 

 mens of 26 species out of a total of 34 that are at present known, 

 including those described by me as new in this paper. 



In my opinion all the genera I deal with in this paper are 

 true Glomeridae and all have the special characters of the family, 

 as I shall show in the description of one of them, viz. Apiomeris. 

 I would particularly like to note that all the Oriental Glomeridae 

 have the latero-posterior incisura of the first tergite (figs. IV- V) 

 shorter than the European Glomeris, s. I. {p. e. G. connexa, C. Koch), 

 and consequently the praeincisural part of the same tergite is longer 

 than the supraincisural part and the posterior point of the sub- 

 incisural part is very near to the posterior border of the tergite. 

 The second tergite of the Oriental Glomeridae has the latera narrower 

 than in European Glomeris. 



I refer the species of Oriental Glomeridae known to me to 

 4 genera, viz Apiomeris, O. F. Cook, Rhopalomeris , Verh., Hyper 

 glomeris, nov., Dinoglomeris , nov., of which Apiomeris comprises 

 4 subgenera ^ and Rhopalomeris two. Of the four genera Apiomeris 

 is the richest in species, in the subgenus Hyleoglomeris alone num- 

 bering about two-thirds of all the known species of Oriental Glo- 

 meridae. Rhopalomeris contains 4 species and a variety, Hyper- 

 glomeris and Dinoglomeris one species each. 



In regard to distribution I note that Apiomeris (subgenus 

 Hyleoglomeris) is well distributed in North and East India, Burma, 

 Siam and the Malay Archipelago to Celebes, it has not been collect- 

 ed up to the present in Ceylon and in South-West India; Apiomeris 

 (s. s.) and Malayomeris in Sumatra; Apiomeris (subgen. Aphero- 



i The dilTerence of grade between genera and subgenera I follow at present 

 is that in the case of genera we have one or more characters to distinguish the 

 females, but in the case of subgenera we are unable to ascribe a species to one or 

 10 another suljoenus unless we know the male also. 



