A NEW SPECIES OF PAUROPUS FROM VICTORIA 155 
trochanter, about half as long again as thick, and a little shorter than the tibia. 
The tibia is only a little longer than its seta. In the terminal segment of the last 
leg there is, as usual, no demarcation of a metatarsus from a tarsus. But a little 
beyond its middle there is recognizable, with various degrees of clearness in 
different individuals, a partial constriction with thinned-out chitin (fig. 4B). This 
constriction is also perceptible in some of the more anterior legs, but not so clearly 
as in the last. This incipient division of the tarsus is not confined to the present 
species. On this point Hansen (1) writes: “In some large species of Pauropus 
the tarsus of the ninth pair presents a faint indication of a division into two joints, 
but this spurious articulation or thin-skinned place is always situated outside the 
middle of the tarsus and has nothing to do with the sharp division into metatarsus 
and tarsus existing in the eighth and other pairs, in which the metartarsus is 
always much shorter than the tarsus.” 
The seta of the tibia of the last leg is tapering and pubescent. A similar but 
shorter seta arises from near the upper end of the tarsus. At the lower end of 
the tarsus is a very short cylindrical faintly pubescent seta, about as long as the 
claw. The coxa and trochanter bear each a single biramous seta; in the more 
anterior legs the corresponding setae are uniramous. 
The middle claw of all the legs is well developed; the posterior claw is small, 
and on the last pair of legs is not merely of diminished size, as in most species, 
but completely absent (cf. figs. 4C, D, E). 
Locality. Belgrave, Victoria. 
Type in National Museum, Melbourne. 
Of the described species of Pauropus Harrison’s P. australis seems to approach 
the nearest to the new species above described. In size both are about the same, 
though P. australis seems to be much more slender. Particularly striking is the 
general resemblance of the hind legs with its reduced number of claws, the anal 
plate and the posterior setae. The head and antennae of P. australis have not been 
described with sufficient attention to those minute points of detail that are needed 
for the differentiation of species in Pawropus. On the principal points of difference 
Harrison is quite definite. In P. australis “the cuticle shows a fairly long pubes- 
cence on the last shield, anal segment, and posterior legs; a slight pubescence on 
the fifth shield; and is smooth in front of that’; in P. silvaticus the dorsal shields 
and the legs are completely free from pubescence. In P. australis Harrison found 
the first tactile seta (trichobothrium) to be “very coarsely plumose distally”; in 
P. silvaticus the seta is uniformly faintly pubescent along its distal half. 
Habits —The animals may be found under stones, fallen timber, 
or amongst the thick deposit of fallen leaves on the forest floor. 
They also enter rotting tree-trunks, half-decayed logs of tree- 
fern (Alsophila, Dicksonia) being particularly favoured. I have 
obtained several hundred out of a single such log. They select a 
damp environment, dry or wet surroundings being both avoided. 
They are light-shy creatures, and quickly run for cover when 
disturbed. 
Oviposition takes place in the early and middle summer months, 
the eggs being scattered about singly in the decaying vegetation 
within which the animals live. The eggs are white and spherical, 
1. Harrison's statement that it is the middle claw that is absent in the hind leg is probably 
an error; it is the normally diminutive posterior claw that becomes reduced in the ninth leg 
in all species of Pawropus (Hansen, 1901), and has completely vanished in P. silvaticus, 
