1920] Chamberlm: Myriopod Fauna of Bermuda 279 



edges of eroded, flat stones; (b) in isolated and much honey- 

 combed blocks of limestone; in either case about nine inches 

 below mean high water. The rock, porous aeolian limestone, 

 or beach rock, is much eroded. The situation is usually muddy 

 (i. e., deposits of silt, calcareous, on the rock). The centipede 

 comes very near to the surface of the rock, sticks its head out 

 into the open, and is even seen running over the moist surface 

 of shaded stones. The animals are not plentiful, but I have seen 

 them at Flatts Inlet, at Port Royal, Great Sound, and at 

 Dyer Id. The rocks inhabited by them are frequently found in 

 little coves, moderately shaded by overhanging ledges. Onchi- 

 dium floridanum lives in the same situations and sometimes 

 uses the same cavities. The centipede eats leodicids, in five 

 instances I have noted, by biting into the side of the creature, 

 licking up the juices and creeping off out of sight with one of the 

 fragments into which the worm autotomises. The centipede, 

 except for color, looks not very unlike the leodicids, which occur 

 plentifully in similar situations, though the distribution of the 

 two types is not coincident. As I remember, Dr. Treadwell 

 found none of the centipedes in all his rock-splitting operations 

 after worms, although he was more or less on the lookout for 

 them. It creeps much like an annelid, the body thrown into 

 waves." 



It may be mentioned that the closely allied Pectiniunguis 

 americanus also seems to have a strictly littoral habitat, occur- 

 ring under sea- weed, drift-wood, etc., on the coasts of the Gulf 

 of Mexico, including Florida, and on the coasts of Lower Cali- 

 fornia. Another geophiloid of a different family, Linotaenia 

 maritima (Leach), seems similarly to have a littoral habitat. Its 

 distribution in Europe is nearly the same as that of Hydro- 

 schendyla submarina Its habits are indicated in the following 

 note by R. I. Pocock.* "Great, therefore, was my astonish- 

 ment, when, turning over the line of seaweed marking the 

 high spring-tide, to find specimens of all sizes swarming amongst 

 the slimy decaying fronds and wriggling away into darkness in 

 company with hosts of scuttling woodlice and hopping sand- 

 shrimps; while here and there was a cluster of them feeding 

 upon the remains of one of the crustaceans." It is significant 

 to note that the geophiloids in general seem to have a strikingly 



* Marine Centipede in Somerset, Zoologist, 1900, ser. 4, 4, p. 484. 



