THE CHILOPODA OF CALIFORNIA III 



RALPH V. CIIAMBERLIN 

 UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, PHILADELPHIA, PA. 



Suborder Geophiloidea 



Tlic mcinbcTs of this suborder are distributed over the entire earth but prefer 

 the warmer and damper regions, the majority occurring in the nortliern hemis- 

 phere. They are to be found in damp (jlaces under stones, logs, leaves, the bark 

 of trees and logs, and in the humus of woods and gardens into which they descend, 

 especially during dry periods such as recur in California. 



In all the body is elongate and very slender and consists of from thirty-one 

 up to one hundred and eighty-one segments, as in a California species here 

 described for the first time. The number of segments varies not only from genus 

 to genus and species but, with few exceptions, also within the species, the range 

 in some species being very great. The number in most cases is quite regularly 

 longer in females than in males, though the maximum for the one ordinarily 

 overlaps the minimum for the other. The antennae are short and consist invariably 

 of fourteen articles, excepting in occasionallj' met cases where the antennae have 

 been broken and are in process of regeneration. Eyes are always lacking. A 

 basal plate, the tergite to which the prehensorial feet belong, is always well 

 developed ; while a small plate, remnant of a preceding tergite, may or may not 

 show between it and the caudal margin of the cephalic plate. The cephalic plate 

 may or may not possess a transverse suture, the frontal suture, setting off the 

 frontal region. The mandibles may bear only so-called pectinate lamellae, which 

 consist of comb-like rows of slender bristles borne upon a common base or plate ; 

 or they may in addition, bear a strongly chitinized plate dentate along its distal 

 edge, the dentate lamella, which, while usually entire, may be subdivided. The 

 first maxillae usually have their coxae fused together at the median line to form 

 a single plate or coxosternum, but, more rarely, they may be entirely separate; 

 distad each maxilla presents an inner division and an outer one, the latter, the 

 palpus, being usuallj' biarticulate but sometimes entire ; at the distal exterior 

 angle of each coxa and of the first joint of the palpus proper there may be a 

 membranous process or lapjiet. The second maxillse, often spoken of together 

 as the labium, usually have the coxae fused in the middle line, though, as with 

 the first pair, they may remain distinct ; tiie palpi are, in all known California 

 species, triarticulate and may or may not terminate in a claw. Each leg-bearing 

 segment excepting the first and the last bears a pair of spiracles, each spiracle 

 opening through a sclerite in the pleural region. Tlie coxopleura" (pseudopleurae, 

 pleurae) of the last segment give exit through the so-called coxopleural pores to 

 a number of glands which may be many or few and may open separatelj' or into 

 one of two common larger pits at the edge of the last ventral plate. 



The fauna of California includes an exceedingly interesting representation 

 of this suborder, showing a greater variety and richness than in any other section 

 of the United States. The Californian families known may be thus separated. 



