REPORT UPON TWO OOLLECTTONS OF MYRIOPODA. 133 



characterised are known to an author, all work that he maj'- do in the 

 description of new species is more or less groping in the dark. As 

 by slow degrees the old species are re- determined, so firmer and 

 firmer becomes the basis from which satisfactory work in the future 

 can be done. The described Indian and Ceylonese species are not 

 so many, but that with a little diligent collecting they may one and 

 all be found again. When this result is once attained, the working 

 out of, the fauna will be tolerably plain sailing. 



For these reasons it was far more gratifying to me, when exa- 

 mining Mr. Thurston's collection, to discover examples referable to 

 species long buried in obscurity, than to be compelled to characterise 

 them all as species novce. * 



It was originally my intention to write separate reports upon the 

 two collections forming the subject-matter of the present paper ; but 

 upon further consideration, seeing that so many of the species occur 

 both on the mainland and in Cejdon, I have thought that it would be 

 more convenient both to my readers and to myself, if I treated the 

 two collections as a whole and wrote the one report for them both. 

 But to render the paper a still more complete record of Indian and 

 Ceylon Myriopoda, I have incorporated descriptions of other new 

 species from these countries. 



To further the object which, as above expressed, I had in view in 

 sending this paper to an Indian Natural History Journal, I have 

 been asked to say a few introductory words upon the various kinds of 

 Myriopoda that are known from India and Ceylon. It has also been 

 suggested to me that a list of the described species might still further 

 forward the same object. 



The so-called group Mjaiopoda is, with the exception of some 

 obscure forms, readily divisible into two sections — the Chilopoda or 

 Centipedes, and the Diplopoda or Millipedes. 



The Chilopoda are carnivorous, active, flattened, more or less soft 

 animals with a single pair of legs attached to each somite. They are 

 divisible into four families, ScuUgerUlre, Ltthohikke, Scolopendrido'., and 

 Geophilidm. The ScuUgeridce contains one genus, Sciitigera, of which 

 only two Indian species are known. This is an exceedingly long- 

 legged, swift-footed diurnal species, no examples of which were found in 

 either of the collections here discussed. The Ij'dhohikke have nut jx't 

 18 



