1960] 
Crab ill — A zygethidae 
77 
terns’ broad experience and at times almost clairvoyant insight could 
not possibly have guessed to which of the existing genera and families 
at op us might be referrable. 
Thanks to the hospitality of Dr. Herbert W. Levi, who is in 
charge of the Arachnida and Myriapoda at Harvard’s Museum of 
Comparative Zoology, I have been able to study the holotype and 
paratype. Both are females that were collected by W. M. Mann at 
Levuka on Fiji. Without the slightest doubt in my mind, both are 
referrable to the oryid Orphnaeus brevilabiatus (Newport), which 
is probably the most widespread and common geophilomorph of the 
world’s tropics. 
Let us examine certain parts of the original description in light of 
what the type specimens themselves disclose. I shall not discuss those 
features that are accurately, or essentially accurately, described therein. 
The mandible is said to have “a single pectinate lamella”. At 
lower magnifications this appears superficially to be the case; however, 
optimal preparation and observation reveal the mandibles unquestion- 
ably to be those of an oryid; they are not geophiliform. The pectinate 
lamellae are simply pressed tightly against the distal end of the man- 
dible, giving it, at first sight, a geophiliform appearance. 
The “coxae”, i. e. the coxosternal sides, of the first maxillae are 
reportedly “wholly discrete”, that is, totally separated. If the reader 
will examine figure i, plate 10, he will see that the coxosternum is 
continuous and that there is not the slightest division at point E. \ he 
two medial processes or lobes, D, are of course discrete, as they al- 
ways are. Perhaps Dr. Chamberlin confused the two in preparing his 
original analysis. 
Ventral pores are said to be absent, but ventral pores are present 
and, in aggregate, form the patterns that are so distinctive of brevila- 
biatus. 
“Last pediferous segment with coxae distinct from the pleurae. . . 
Precisely what Chamberlin meant here is unclear; however, his use of 
the world pleurae, which is plural, implies a reference to pleural 
sclerites rather than to lateral body wall or membrane. In fact, be- 
tween the leg base and tergite there is a weakly sclerotized plate-like 
protuberance which appears to be an out-folding of the lateral body 
wall (plate 10, fig. 2 , F). This same structure is to be seen in speci- 
mens of O. brevilabiatus ; it is more pronounced in some than others. 
Probably it represents an abortive paratergite, a serial homologue of 
the more anterior, typical paratergites. In any event, the statement 
