II. 



A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE OF THE NORTH AMERICAN 



MYRIAPODA. 



BYDR. L. M. I'NDERWOOD. 



The Myriapoda of the United States were first studied by Thomas 

 Say in 1821. In a paper published in the Journal of the Philadelphia 

 Academy of Sciences* he described eighteen species, mostly from the 

 Southern States, Avhich he arranged in the genera Julus, Polydesmus, 

 Polyxenus, Germatia, Lithobius, Cryptops, and Geophilus. Scattering 

 species had already been described by the earlier European naturalists, 

 and even in America one species had been described in 1820 by Rafin- 

 esque under the name of Selista forceps. Yet Say's work will stand as 

 the first of importance, recognizing, as it does, a considerable number 

 of species. 



After Say's time no species were added to our fauna for twenty years, 

 when Brandt (1841) published from St. Petersburg his Recueil, consist- 

 ing of a reprint of a series of papers relating to the Myriapods which 

 he had issued since 1839. Four species from our territory are here 

 described. After Brandt came Newport, who published in 1844 a 

 monograph of the Chilopoda, in which five species were added to our 

 fauna and the genera Theatops and Scolopocryptops were founded, to 

 which he referred some of Say's species. Three years later (1847) Koch 

 published his "System der Myriapoden", in which a considerable num- 

 ber of American species were described. The same year appeared 

 volume IV of "Apteres," by Baron Walckenaer and Paul Gervais, in 

 which the latter describes two new species from the United States and 

 includes descriptions of the species of Say, Brandt, and Newport, in 

 all amounting to twenty-six species. 



During this period two other papers appeared. In 1853 Charles 

 Girard published in an appendix to the Report of Marcy's Exploring 

 Expedition a description of ScoJopendra heros, the large "centipede" of 

 the Southwest, with plate, together with two species of Julus supposed 

 to be new. Three years later Sager published brief and indefinite de- 

 scriptions of three new species, giving neither distinguishing characters 

 to his species nor the localities from which he obtained his specimens. 

 The first four decades since Say's first publication thus found us with 

 a known Myriapod fauna of about thirty nominal species. 



*An alphabetic list of the literature relating to the American species is appended 



to this introduction. 



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