90 



DESCKIPTIOlSr OF A NEW SPECIES OF 

 ASELLUS. 



By 0. P. HAY. 



Asellus militaris. {Sp. not.) 



Length of male 17 mm., of female 11 mm. Color brown, ornamented 

 with irregular shaped yellow spots, somewhat symmetrically arranged on 

 each side of the median line. Feet and caudal stylets with a tinge of rose. 

 Upper surface of the body covered with minute scattered hairs. All the 

 free margins of the body abundantly furnished with slender spines ; these 

 longest on the lateral margin. Head narrow, only about one-half the width 

 of the first thoracic segment; the anterior margin concave; antero-lateral angles 

 obliquely truncated ; lateral margins diverging posteriorly, with a small 

 outwardly projecting lobe at the posterior angle ; this lobe furnished with 

 several short spines. Eyes comparatively small. Anterior segments of 

 thorax concave in front, convex behind ; becoming less so to fifth segment, 

 whose anterior and posterior margins are nearly straight. Sixth and sev- 

 enth segments convex in front, concave behind, the concavity being deepest 

 in the seventh. All the thoracic segments after the second about, the same 

 width ; the second a little narrower than the succeeding segments ; the first 

 about three-fourths as wide as the widest. Antero-lateral angles of first 

 segment excavated and filled by the broad epimera. Second segment very 

 slightly notched in front. In the succeeding segments this notch is pushed 

 further back and becomes deeper, especially in the last three. As the notch 

 becomes deeper, the antero-lateral angle is lengthened and turned back- 

 ward. The epimera again make their appearance in the fifth, sixth, and 

 seventh segments, only partially filling the lateral notches. Postero-lateral 

 angles of all the thoracic segments rounded. 



Abdomen sub-orbicular ; width and length equal ; anterior and pos- 

 terior angles quite well marked. Posterior margin excavated at insertion 

 of caudal stylets, prolonged behind into a median lobe. This, in the male, 

 reaches back scarcely one-third the length of the pedicel of the caudal sty- 

 lets, but in the female about one-half the length of the pedicel. Width of 

 abdomen less than that of any of the thoracic segments, except the first and 

 second, about equal in width to second. Antennulse shorter than the pe 

 duncle of the antennae ; basal segment short, a little curved and having a 

 diameter nearly three times that of the next segment ; second segment. 



