i 62 
The Ohio Naturalist. 
[Vol. IV, No. 7 , 
by Sandusky Bay. Here they lay their eggs immediately, except 
when the weather becomes cold, as during the summer of 1903. 
B'or weeks during that summer, there were strong winds from the 
west and northwest that drove a heavy surf against the beach 
mentioned. Moreover, the major portion of the season during 
which oviposition generall}’ takes place, remained cold and cloudy. 
The result was that the myriopods did not lay their eggs until 
late. During the latter part of Jul}- and the first of August, 
adults were not to be .seen, as during hot summers like that of 
1902, running about in groups on the .sand, but were found hud- 
dled together in numbers under the dead mar.sh grass and debris 
that covered the bay beach above the wash of the waves. 
For a short while in the second week in August, some were 
found pairing in the grass farther towards the middle of the Point, 
and a little later, several nests were discovered. The nests are 
built in loose sand, preferably that when mixed with a little loam 
and always soil that is somewliat damji. The nests are dug bj' 
the female while the male is mounted. She uses her anterior 
appendages to dig the hole, passing the dirt upward to the open- 
ing of the hole Iw means of the remaining appendages. She 
removes the dirt until she has made a cavity a little greater than 
the width of her body and about two inches in depth. When the 
greatest depth has been reached that she is to make the hole, she 
widens out a cave-like terminus which reaches a diameter of about 
half an inch. She is now read}- to depo.sit the eggs. To under- 
stand this process, it is necessarj’ to keep in mind that the exter- 
nal generative opening of the female is on the second body .seg- 
ment. Hence the female is enabled to deposit the eggs without 
withdrawing from the hole. The eggs are fastened to the walls 
of the enlargement at the base of the tubular nest, and after .she 
has lined the cavity, she keeps on depositing eggs until she has 
made four or five layers of eggs. vSometimes the whole of the 
enlargement is filled, but generally there is a lumen in the center 
of the nia.ss of eggs. 
There is no evidence furnished by the present observations for 
the statement made by some authors’ that the female guards the 
nest after she has deposited her eggs. Of the many cases watched, 
none of the females nor males remained in the vicinity of the nest 
after the egg-laying had been completed. The mouth of the nest 
was in each ca.se left uncovered, but u.sually, by chance, the open- 
ing became stopped up either by rain or wind or some other 
factor. 
Young specimens were found during the whole of the summer 
amongst the adults. The.se immature individuals ranged in length 
from three-quarters of an inch to full size. In color the}’ differed 
I. Korschelt and Heider, Kmhryology of Invert. Vol. III. p. 218. 
