208 MYRIAPODA. 



L. phalangii, Lat. Body oval, scarlet ; anteriorly subcapitate, with 

 two black eyes and a subconical rostrum, first joint of the palpi 



thickened ; legs subequal, Found on the Phalangium opilio 



Lai. Gen. i. 162. 



Gen. 27. ASTOMA, Lat. 



Body soft, oval, with six short feet; mouth beneath, nearly 

 obsolete ; no sucker or visible palpi. 



A. parasiticum, Lat. Body coccineous, with the middle slightly 

 contracted. Found on the bodies of flies and other insects. Lat. 

 Gen. i. 162. 



CLASS VIII. MYRIAPODA. 



Head distinct, with two antennae ; mandibles simple, incisive ; 

 feet on all or most of the segments of the body. 



THE animals of this Class were arranged among the apterous 

 Insects by Linnaeus, under the generic appellations of Scolopen- 

 dra and Julus. Fabricius placed them in a particular class, 

 named MITOSATA, including the same genera; and Cuvier, Du- 

 meril, and Latreille in his earlier works, arranged them with 

 the Insects. Lamarck, in his Histoire Naturelle des Animaux 

 sans Vertebres, placed them as a division of his Class AHACH- 

 NIDES ; and Dr Leach, in the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, fixed 

 their characters as a distinct class, in which he has been follow- 

 ed by Latreille and the later writers. 



The Myriapoda, allied to the two preceding classes in their 

 general structure, approach the insects in the organization of 

 their respiratory apparatus. This consists of two principal tra- 

 cheae or air-tubes, extending longitudinally and parallel to one 

 another the whole length of the body, which receive the air by 

 numerous lateral spiracles. Their sexual organs are also, as 

 in these, single. The feet, indefinite in number, but always 

 more tban six, are inserted by single or double pairs on the seg- 

 ments of the body, and increase in number as the body is elon- 

 gated from age. From their great number of feet the animals of 

 this class have been designated by the term Millepedes. 



The Myriapoda in general have the form of small serpents 

 or worms, with an elongated body of numerous segments and 

 of the same thickness, and crowded with feet along its whole 



