A NKW AND ANNEGTANT TYPE OF CHILOPOD. 437 



Finally, it may be stated with confidence and without fear 

 of contradiction that the true nature of the connection, as 

 above explained, between the metamerism of the Lithobioid 

 and Scolopendroid types would never have been guessed, had 

 it not been for the fortunate survival of this intermediate 

 form with the six additional somites of the last-named type 

 in process of excalation.' 



Paut IV. — Character and Classification of the Chilo- 



PODA. 



It is beyond the scope of this article to give a detailed 

 account of the development of the vai*ious classifications of 

 the Chilopoda that have been proposed. The main outlines 

 of the subject need only be sketched. Concerning the 

 division of the class into the four main sections typified by 

 Geophilus, Scolopendra, Lithobius, and Scutigera, 

 there has been a pretty general consentience ; but authorities 

 have been divided into two schools of opinion touching the 

 relationship of these sections to one another. The first, 

 maintaining the isolation of the Scutigerid^e, was set on foot 

 by Latreille in 1825 (' Faune du Regne Anim.,' p. 327), was 

 supported by Brandt ('Bull. Acad. St. Petersb.,' vii, p. 311, 

 1840), and held its own practically unchallenged until the 

 publication of Newport's last monograph in 1856, when 

 Brandt's classification of the class into Schizotarsia for 



' It is perhaps necessary to point out tliat tlie line of argument here 

 adopted to explain the descent of the Litliobioid from tlie Scolopendroid type 

 is based upon the conviction that intercalation of somites never occurs. Were 

 this otherwise the process of transformation migiit be reversed, and the Scolo- 

 pendroid type derived from the Lithobioid ; but this would in no sense invali- 

 date tlie contention that Craterostigmus occupies an intermediate position 

 between the other two. Haase (' Zeits. ent. Breslau,' pt. viii, 1881, pp. 93 

 — 115) held an entirely different view in dealing with the phylogeny of the 

 Chilopoda. He regarded the richer metamerism of theGeopliilidte and Scolo- 

 pendridse as a derived, and not as a primitive cliaracter. Botii Geophilidse and 

 Scolopendridse liave descended, according to him, from a primitive " epimor- 

 phous " stock, which was itself derived from an earlier " anamorphous " type, 

 whence, along independent lines of development, arose the Lithobiidse and 

 Scutigeridse. 



VOL. 45, part 3. — NEW SEKIKS. GG 



