346 Mr. R. I. Pocock on Chilopoda and Diplopoda 



epiplastra). The name " proscapula," as suggested by Baur*, 

 may be applied to this process both in the Chelonia and in 

 the Sauropterygia ; but since, as Professor Howes has pointed 

 out to me, the use of the term as a substantive is open to tlie 

 objection that it implies the existence of a distinct element, 

 it will be better to speak of it as the " proscapular process." 



XLIII. — Report upon the Chilopoda and Diplopoda obtained bi/ 

 P. W. Bassett- Smith, Esq., Surgeon R.-N., and J. J. 

 Walker, Esq., R.N., during the Cruise in the Chinese Seas 

 of H. M.S. *" Penguin^ Commander W. U. Moore commanding. 

 By E. I. Pocock, of the British Museum of Natural 

 History. 



[Plate XL] 



The following report is based primarily upon the species of 

 Chilopoda and Diplopoda obtained by Messrs. J. J. Walker 

 and JP. W. Bassett-Sraith during the cruise of H.M.S. 

 ' Penguin ' in the Chinese Seas. But, to render the account 

 of further interest and value, notices have been incorporated of 

 all the Japanese and Chinese species of these two groups that 

 are contained in the British Museum, including descriptions 

 of a large number of new forms obtained by Mr. Hoist prin- 

 cipally in the islands of Loo-Choo and in Formosa. It is 

 hoped* that by this means the paper may prove to be an index 

 of the affinities of the Chilopod and Diplopod fauna of tlie 

 Chinese area. 



So far as can at present be judged from the material at 

 my disposal, this fauna is a most curious mixture, being 

 identical in most of its features with that of the central and 

 southern part of the United States of America, with an in- 

 fusion from the Indo-Malayan area of the Oriental Region and 

 from the soutliern and central portions of the Paleearctic. 



Taking first the Chilopoda, it seems evident that such forms 

 as Scutigera clunifera, Scolopendra morsitans and subspinipes 

 (with its varieties), and the species of Otostigmus are migrants 

 from the Oriental Region ; the Lithobiidaj are both Palai- 

 arctic and North American, while Otocryptops sexspinosus is 

 essentially a North-American species. In tlie Diplopoda the 

 species of Polydesmus and of lulus show affinities with both 



* Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 1891, p. 421. 



