[ 181 



III. On Pauropus, a New Type of Centipede. 

 By Sir John Lubbock, Bart., F.B.S., V.B.Linn. Soc, Bres. But. Soc, V.B.Ethn.Soc, Sfc. 



(Plate X.) 



Read December 6th, 1866. 



THE little creature which I am ahout to describe in the present Memoir was found by me 

 during the course of the last autumn, and exhibited to the Entomological Society at 

 their first meeting in these rooms. 



It occurs in considerable numbers among dead leaves, and in other accumulations of de- 

 caying organic substances, in company with the various species of Thy sanura, mites, worms, 

 &o. which frequent similar situations. Though not exactly sociable in their habits, 

 and though I never saw them take any notice of one another, still they exhibit none of 

 that extreme ferocity which characterizes the Chilopoda, and do not appear to avoid 

 one another's presence. It may, however, have been owing to their frequency that I 

 have often found many of them together. 



In my garden, indeed, they are very common ; and it is surprising that they should 

 have been overlooked so long. Of course it is quite possible that their abundance with 

 me this autumn may have been merely a local and temporary accident ; they may be 

 rare as a rule, and thus have escaped until now the notice of the naturalist. On the 

 whole, however, I feel rather disposed to think that, from their minute size, their small 

 number of legs, and general appearance, they have been looked on as larval forms. 

 This would probably be the first impression of any naturalist ; at any rate it was my 

 own ; but it is clearly untenable. In the first place, we have no group of Centi- 

 pedes in this country to which Bauropus could be referred. The young stages of 

 most genera belonging to the Diplopods are well known, and very different from my little 

 creature. We might say almost the same of the Chilopods, from which, moreover, it 

 differs in the structure of the mouth, as well as in the arrangement of the legs. 

 Secondly, I have had many hundreds of specimens under examination, and am well 

 acquainted with the earlier forms, which I shall presently describe. I have even one 

 specimen which has lived in confinement from the 18th of August * ; and yet I have 

 never had any which exceeded, either in size or in the number of legs, those now to be 

 described. Thirdly, I have on several occasions met with specimens containing numbers 

 of spermatozoa (PL X. fig. 16), and which, therefore, may be regarded as mature males. 



However much, therefore, we may be surprised at the existence of so small a Myriaj)od, 

 there can, I think, be no doubt on the subject. There are other points in which the 

 present form differs greatly, as will be seen from the following description, from all 



unt 



a few days of its death. 



It was lively and apparently in perfect health until within 



t 



