132 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1892. 



to preserve, obscure in characters, and, doubtless to many, tbough 

 not, let us hope, to tbe majority, repulsive in aspect; with no 

 marketable value worth mentioning, and with little or nothing of 

 interest in their habits to attract the attention of naturalists. Add 

 to all this that the literature is scattered, that such species as have 

 been described are not as a rule recognisable from their descriptions, 

 and that the name of the species is legion, and we need look no 

 further for the causes of the fact that so small an amount of time 

 and trouble has been devoted to these creatures by systematic 

 zoologists. 



The above remarks apply, however, most forcibly to the group of 

 Millipedes. The Chilopoda or Centipedes are much fewer in number 

 of species, and such as have been described are now well-known. 

 But even in this group an enormous amount of new material must be 

 still undiscovered. Perhaps a rough estimate of the new forms, 

 likely to be obtained, may be gathered from the following figures : — 

 Out of a collection of 33 species of Ohilopoda amassed by Mr. Gates 

 and Signer L. Fea in Burma, 16 were new ; while out of the 

 11 species that Mr. Thurston has sent home to the British Museum, 

 5 were new. This percentage is very large, and it could doubtless 

 be increased if special attention were paid to the smaller and more 

 obscure forms. 



The average number of new species in Diplopoda would most 

 likely be higher. Mr. Thurston has been somewhat unfortunate in 

 only obtaining 3 new ones out of 11, while Mr. Green, on the 

 contrary, discovered 11 new species in a collection of 21, and without 

 especially laying himself out to get these animals, he has, apart 

 from the species, added two families and one genus to the Oriental 

 fauna, and one interesting new genus to science. 



But in the present state of our knowledge of this group, the value 

 of a collection depends perhaps less upon the discovery of new forms 

 than upon the re- discovery of old ones. For w^hat is now required 

 in the Myriopoda is that the species that have been poorly charac- 

 terised in past years should be brought again to light ; so that 

 opportunities may be afforded of re -describing them in accordance 

 with modern requirements or of figuring them so that they may 

 be readily recognised. For unless the species that have been 



