42 
CLEIDOGONA. 
light and air, and made his escape by gnawing a small round hole in 
the side of his nest, or rather by Dushing aside the threads of the 
loose network. The whole structure is about 5 mm. across, while 
the animal it contained is about 9 mm. long by i mm. broad and has 
26 segments. The threads of the network are of very even and con- 
stant diameter, slightly more than a thousandth of a millimetre. 
They are transparent and glassy in structure, and appear to be glued 
together where they lie one upon another. The open meshes are 
usually many times the diameter of the thread. The fabric is about 
equally loose throughout, the side which lies against the leaf not dif- 
fering from the other parts. 
That these cocoons were spun by their tenants does not admit of 
doubt, but the method of their production is not yet known. The 
Coelocheta and Monocheta (Stemmatoiulus) differ from all other 
Diplopoda in the possession of large papillae articulated to the apex 
of the last segment, and Vom Rath has found that these are connected 
with a complex internal apparatus. That these papillae are spinning- 
organs has naturally suggested itself, but how the spinning is accom- 
plished is still a mystery. The papillae in question are each tipped 
with a slender fine-pointed hair. This is hollow at base, but I have 
been unable to follow the lumen to the apex. The supposed spin- 
ning organs of Scolopendrella are also tipped with a hair, but the 
source of the thread seems not to have been ascertained. 
That the Coelocheta and Monocheta possess functional spinning- 
organs which are wanting in the other orders would demand recogni- 
tion in a natural arrangement of the group. This has already been 
accorded by their ordinal separation from the polydesmoid and iuloid 
forms, from which they differ by complexes of other characters. 
July 25, 1896. 
I 
