Carboniferous Myriapods of the genus Huphoberia. 1838 
The Diplopoda are universally considered the lower of the two 
in their organization, and it is therefore not surprising to find 
that no Chilopoda have been found in rocks older than the 
Tertiary series ;* while Myriapods with two pair of legs corres- 
ponding to each dorsal plate may be found as far back as the 
Coal-measures. In such comparisons as are here instituted, 
the Chilopoda may therefore be left out of account. 
In modern Diplopoda, each segment of the body is almost 
entirely composed of the dorsal plate, forming a nearly com- 
plete ring, for it encircles, as a general rule, nine-tenths of the 
body, leaving small room for the pair of ventral plates. On 
the side of the body it is perforated by a minute foramen, the 
opening of an odoriferous gland. Usually the ring is nearl 
circular, but occasionally the body is considerably flattened, 
and the sides are sometimes expanded into flattened laminz 
with a smooth or serrate margin; a few species are provided 
with minute hairs, sometimes perched on little papillae; and 
the surface of the body, ordinarily smooth or at best wrinkled, 
Is occasionally beset with roughened tubercles, which may even 
form jagged projections. So far as I am aware, no nearer ap- 
proach to spines occurs on this dorsal plate than the serrate 
edges of the lateral laminw, the roughened tubercles or the 
papilla-mounted hairs 
spines are sometimes forked at the tip, and they are 
(probably) always provided to a greater or less extent with 
Sspinules, springing from the base or the stem; sometimes these 
are so numerous as to form a whorl of little spines around the 
main stem; usually the main spines are at least half as long as 
the diameter of the body: often they are as long as the diame- 
ter, and one may readily picture the different appearance be- 
tween one of these creatures, perhaps a foot or more in length, 
PP gm proavus Germ., from the Jura, is certainly a nereid worm, as stated 
+ This is what would be expected from the presence of spines, for two such 
means of defence should not be looked for in the same animal; offensive glands 
are present only in slow-moving or otherwise defenceless creatures, as in Phas- 
midz among Orthoptera for example. 
