NO. 1170. THE FAMIL Y G OMPHODESMID^—COOE. Ill 



process is medianly cariiiate, while postically it has two median depres- 

 sions, one above and the otlier below the middle. 



Sternum of fifteenth segment with a broadly triangular, medianly ex- 

 cavate process consisting of an extension of the transverse ridge between 

 the anterior pair of legs, directed cephalad and accommodated by a small 

 concavity in the fourteenth segment. The ridge connecting the anterior 

 pair of legs of the sixteenth segment is continuous, while all others are 

 medianly interrupted. On the segments immediately following the copu- 

 latory legs the ridges are short, and those between the posterior pair 

 of legs are much more prominent than those between the anterior. 



Legs of males densely hirsute with long hairs on the ventral face of 

 the two basal Joints; especially is this the case in the anterior half of 

 the body; distal joints of legs also densely hirsute with shorter hairs; 

 the ventral faces of the distal joints of the legs are scarcely hirsute and 

 slightly, if at all, tuberculate. 



Copulatory legs (Plate LVIII, figs. 2«-2c). 



Color: According to Peters the dorsum and antennje were dark red- 

 dish brown, the carina-, ventral surface, and legs brownish yellow. 



Length, 83 mm.; width, including carinie, 15 mm.; width of body 

 cavity, 10 mm.; length of antenna, 11.5 mm.; length of leg of ninth 

 segment, 15 mm. 



Locality. — Dr. Peters says: "I found this species in rubbish heaps 

 on the island of Mozambique and on the peninsula of Cabaceira in the 

 month of December, at Querimba in ^lay, and also at Tette."' The speci- 

 men chiefly employed in the above description was collected by Peters 

 at Mozambique and labeled as type in Peters's handwriting. It is Xo. 

 541 of the Berlin Museum. The specimCiiS which Peters sujiposed were 

 young males with well-developed copulatory legs are members of a dis- 

 tinct genus, here described under the name Xeodenmns juvenis. Whether 

 the specimens collected at other places belong in reality to the i)resent 

 species may perhaps be doubted. 



MERODESMUS, new genus. 



Body of medium size, about five times as long as broad, tapering 

 gradually cephalad, very abruptly caudad; dorsum strongly convex, 

 the carinje strongly depressed in the direction of the dorsal arch. 



Antennai filiform, the second joint slightly longer than the four fol- 

 lowing, which are subequal; olfactory cones 10. 



First segment about three times as broad as long; posterior margin 

 nearly straight, the anterior strongly curved laterad so that there is no 

 distinct lateral edge, the posterior corner of the segment being more 

 X)ronounced than in the other genera. 



Segments dorsally even and smooth. 



Lateral carinas rather narrow, their thickened margins of moderate 

 width and prominence, the anterior and j)Osterior edges very narrowly 

 margined; the calli of poreless and anterior segments are narrow, 



