744 F. MUIR AND J. 0. KERSHAW. 
twelve pairs. In all instars this Scolopendrella is entirely 
white, and is very active—though, for a few hours after 
hatching, the young seem to rest on the empty egg-shells, 
along with their mother. When newly-hatched they are 
about 1 mm. in length. The female guards her eges and 
young as do the Centipedes, and even when the egg-chamber 
is rudely broken open will not, as a rule, desert them. The 
adults, from an examination of the contents of the stomach, 
appear to feed chiefly on rotten wood and fungus growths, 
but probably, along with this material, swallow the minute 
animals abounding in the logs. 
In the adult there are sixteen dorsal segments; the first 
seoment very small, the fifteenth bearing the cerci. There 
are fourteen ventral segments, the thirteenth bearing the 
anal papillee with tactile bristles. In the adult the sixteenth 
tergite and the fourteenth sternite are very obscure, being 
retracted into the penultimate segment; but in the newly- 
hatched animal (fig. 2, 9, and fig. 5, 12) they are perfectly dis- 
tinct, and bear small hairs like all the anterior segments. 
Between the sternites there is a fold of softer membrane 
(fig. 4, m.) which allows free movements to the segments ; 
this membrane cannot be considered as a segment. In a 
second and less common species of Scolopendrella in Ceram, 
the tergites are small and have a fold of membrane between 
them, as well as the sternites. On the ventral segments, 
four to nine inclusive, there are small median processes, one 
on each segment (vp, fig. 4). 
From the following table it will be observed that there are 
six pedigerous instars, and that the young acquire the legs 
in pairs; the ventral seements increase in number in the 
same ratio as the pairs of leas, whilst the number of dorsal 
segments remains the same in the fifth and sixth (adult) 
instars. ‘lhe number of antennal joints in the first instar is 
six, and in the second instar usually twelve, but afterwards 
we found the number of joints acquired in the remaining 
instars to vary very much. They also vary in the adults, 
but the usual numbers seem to be twenty-five to thirty. The 
