SIR JOHN LUBBOCK ON PAUROPUS. 



185 



I have never met with a specimen possessing four pairs of legs, and am persuaded 

 that none such exist. Indeed in one case I had the opportunity of watching a six-lcirged 

 specimen in the act of moulting. It was standing over the old skin, in which its legs 

 and antennae were still entangled. In about an hour it walked off, carrying the old 

 skin attached to one of its posterior legs. There was no great change except the addition 

 of another large segment and two more pairs of legs — making altogether five pairs. Its 

 length was -^ of an inch. 



It is curious that two pairs of legs should be acquired at this moult, because in the 

 subequent ones only one new pair are formed. The changes indeed are slow, and as yet 

 I have only succeeded in breeding any up to the stage with six pairs ; but as I have met 

 with many specimens possessing respectively seven pairs and eight pairs, we may, I think, 

 safely conclude that a new pair are added at each moult after the first, until the full 

 number are acquired. 



Pauropus pedunculatus (Plate X. fig. 20). 



I have also met with another species of Pauropus. In habits and time of appearance, 

 in form, and size it resembles P. Huxley % but appears to be much rarer ; at least, among 

 several hundred specimens I only observed half a dozen of this form. These appeared to 

 me to be rather yellower in tint ; but the difference was very slight, and I am not sure 



if it was constant. 



The principal difference between the two species, and that by which they may be dis- 

 tinguished at a glance, resides in the antennae (Plate X. fig. 20). 



The basal portion, indeed, is alike in both. The apical part, on the contrary, differs 

 considerably. The two processes (a and b, Plate X. fig. 20) are nearly of equal length- 

 One of the long ringed appendages of a is situated at, and occupies the whole of the 

 extremity ; it is longer than that in the other form, and nearly as long as the similar 

 appendage of b. The other ringed appendage is situated at the side of a, and is much 

 shorter, while in the other form the two appendages of a are of equal length. The small 

 pear-shaped body between the two appendages is much larger in this than in the other 

 form, and is seated on a stalk. 



Colour white with a tinge of yellow. 



Length -£$ of an inch. 



Pound in autumn, among dead leaves &c. Not common. 



There has been much difference of opinion among naturalists as to the value which 

 ouo-ht to be assigned to the group of Myriapods, — Leach, Gervais, Newport, Strauss 

 Durckheim, Busk, and Huxley ranking them as a distinct class ; while other eminent 

 naturalists, such as Linnaeus, Lamarck, Latreille, Siebold, Cuvier, Owen, Brandt, and 

 others, have regarded them as constituting an order only. Again, there has been i^reat 

 difference of opinion as to their affinities; for while the majority of the last-named 

 naturalists classed them among the true insects, Siebold and Oken placed them among 

 the Crustacea, and Lamarck among the Arachnida, while Latreille regarded them at one 

 time as forming part of the Crustacea, at another as Araehnida, and lastly as insects. To 

 these illustrations many others might have been added; but enough have been cited to 



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