52 Mr. E. I. Pocock on the Synonymy of 



Dr. Koch described these two species. A perusal of the 

 descriptions and a glance at plate xi. of the Atlas at once 

 reveals two things — firstly that the species are quite distinct, 

 and secondly that the engraver in lettering the plate applied 

 the name Oervaisiana to the tigure of the species described as 

 ScopoUana^ and vice versa. In 1845, in vol. xix. of the Trans. 

 Linn. Soc, Newport described a third species from Algeria, 

 to which he gave the name algerina. In 1849, in the Expl. 

 Sci. de I'Alg., Lucas redescribed and figured the two species 

 characterized by Koch, and pointed out the engraver's error 

 connected with the plate. So far all was well ; but unfortu- 

 nately, for some unknown reason, this author came to the 

 conclusion that Newport's algerina was synonymous with 

 Koch's Gervaisiana — an error which becomes apparent as 

 soon as the descriptions are compared. As a matter of fact 

 algerina is synonymous with Scopoliana. Tliis was mistake 

 number two. But by far the greatest error was committed by 

 Koch himself, who in 1863, in vol. i. of his work * Die Myrio- 

 poden,' absolutely transposed the names of the species that he 

 had previously made known, and described and figured Sc.Ger- 

 vaisiana as JScopoliana and Scopoliana as Gervaisiana. This 

 was probably on account of the mistake originally committed by 

 the engraver of the plates in Wagner's ' Reisen in Algier.' 

 However that may be, in 1881, when Dr. Kohlrausch mono- 

 graphed the Scolopendridge in the Arch, fiir Nat., instead of 

 clearing away the obstacles he, apparently misled by Lucas's 

 mistake, added three more difficulties to those that already 

 beset the question — i. e. he concluded, in a characteristically 

 sweeping manner, firstly that the three species under 

 discussion, namely Scopoliana^ Gervaisiana^ and algerina^ 

 were identical, and secondly that they were synonymous with 

 Sc. morsitans (Linn.) ; and finally, having thus happily dis- 

 posed of and forgotten Koch's Gervaisiana, he redescribed it 

 under his genus Gupipes as a new species named grcecus. 



The full synonymy then of the two species will be as 

 follows : — 



Scolopendra Scopoliana, Koch. 



Scolopendra Scopoliana, Koch, in Wagner's Reisen in Algier, iii. p. 222, 



pi. xi. (1841). 

 Scolopendra algerina, Newport, Trans. Linn. Soc. xix. p. 387 (1845). 

 Scolopendra Scopoliana, Lucas, Expl. Sci. Alg. i. p. S41, pi. ii. tig. 5 



(1849). 

 Scolopendra Gervaisiana, Koch, Die Mjr. i. p. 53, pi. xxiii. fig. 46 



(lb63). Not Gervaisiana in Wagner's Reisen &c. iii. p. 223. 

 Scolopendra morsitans (Linn.), Kohlrausch, Arch. f. Nat. 1881, p. 104. 



