304 Mr. R. Templeton's Memoir 



examine them. I wish I could persuade you to give us a mono- 

 graph of the wliole tribe, describing all you can get hold of in 

 Britain or from your continental friends, and restoring the proper 

 generic names. As a retaining fee I send you one to be included 

 among the true Lcpisynce. 



Lepisma niveo-fasciata, (PI. XVI. fig. 1 — 7.) 



Intensely black, with a broad white band along the posterior 

 margin of the first dorsal plate. Mead with several diverging 

 bundles of yellow set;e anteriorly and laterally. The margins of 

 the thorax similarly distinguished. A row of dots near the 

 posterior dorsal margin of each abdominal ring, having four or 

 five similar seta?, two invariably projecting backwards, the rest 

 outwards. Body beneath silvery, the abdominal rings on each 

 side with two rows of diverging bundles of yellow setae. Legs, 

 antennae, and maxillary palpi yellow, caudal appendages fuscous. 



The caudal appendages, (fig. 2,) compared with the length of 

 the body, are of variable length, composed of short thick rings, 

 each with numerous rather long stiff hairs directed directly out- 

 wards, and the apical margin crowned with minute hairs projecting 

 backwards, every third or fourth with long, strong, stiff spines 

 standing at right angles. 



The antenn.'ic, setaceous, arise with two naked joints, the first 

 short, the second rather long ; beyond the basal third the antennae 

 presents a singular character, it would seem that every four united 

 to form one joint subdivided into three short and one long divisions, 

 the latter armed with bristles (fig. 3a, 3b, 3c): the same cha- 

 racter would seem to pertain to those nearer the head, but the 

 divisions are so short and hairy that I could not satisfy myself 

 that it was so. 



The young differ so much from the mature insect that I took 

 them at first for a different species : they are fuscous or atrous ; 

 antennas, legs, and appendages very pale, the thoracic plates are 

 proportionally less broad, and the first is devoid of the white 

 marginal band. 



When the little creature is moving rapidly the double pair of 

 auxiliary legs are dragged along merely supporting the hind part 

 of the abdomen, but when it moves very slowly 1 have occasion- 

 ally noticed an ambulatory movement, but nothing resembling that 

 of true legs; in fact, the terminal joint being clothed with an 

 irregular brush of minute hairs would seem to render it impossi- 

 ble that the animal could derive any advantage from it as such. 



The old Dutch books in the libraries are infested with these 

 Lcp'ismcc, and suffer much from their inroads. 



