44 
Annals of the Transvaal Museum. 
NOTE ON A TRANSVAAL SPECIES OF ONYCOPHORA 
(OPISTHOPATUS). 
By John Hewitt, B.A. (Cantab.). 
The species here recorded was collected by P. A. Krantz in the 
Lydenburg District some short time prior to the outbreak of the late 
war, and during the troublous times which ensued all the specimens 
with one exception were lost. This specimen, preserved in spirits, 
is a young female only 16 mm. long (antennae not included), and, 
judging* from the external characters, it agrees very closely with the 
Opisthopatus cinctipes Pure, of Natal and eastern Cape Colony. It 
has sixteen pairs of legs, the last pair being clawed and quite as large 
and well developed as the first pair; the papillae of the feet are 
arranged exactly as in the species just mentioned, and the papillae 
on the body also agree fairly well in shape. Coxal organs are not 
to be seen, but there are indications of pits which mark the apertures 
of such organs in a retracted condition. In colour it is brownish 
black, and this, Dr. Gunning informs me, was the case in living 
specimens ; there is a darker mid-dorsal line and a similar one on 
‘either side just above the bases of the legs. Alternating bands on the 
ventral surfaces of the legs are not to be seen. 
The Transvaal species may, however, be distinct from 
Opisthopatus cinctipes Pure., for it appears to differ from that species 
in the following respects : — 
The proximal spinous pad of the sixteenth leg is well 
developed and entire, whereas in Cinctipes it is broken up 
(cp. Purcell in Annals of the South African Museum, 
1900, 2, p. 68), and, secondly, the sexual orifice of the 
female is large and truly cruciform, the longitudinal slit 
being well developed. 
It is intended to deal more thoroughly with this species when 
sufficient material is available and when an external examination can 
be supplemented by dissections. 
