X. 
AN AMERICAN GLOMEROID. 
Up to the present time no member of the order Oniscomorpha has 
been reported from any part of the Western Hemisphere. It was ac- 
cordingly a pleasant surprise to collect recently at Auburn, Alabama, 
numerous specimens of what appeared at first sight to be a small pill- 
bug, but which closer examination and dissection showed to be a new 
form evidently related to the European family Glomerididae, but dif- 
fering in characters which indicate long divergence from the same 
ancestors. The body is smaller and less heavily armored than in true 
Glomeridae, though the general shape of the sclerites is much the 
same. 
The last three pairs of legs of males are modified in nearly the same 
manner as in the Glomerididse and Gervaisiidae, showing that in the 
Oniscomorpha as in each of the other Diplopod orders, the copulatory 
legs are of more or less completely independent structure and origin, 
and may, indeed, have been the ground of ordinal differentiation. 
That the differentiation of copulatory legs was begun before the 
power to coil into a sphere was perfected is evidenced by the fact that 
Zephronia, Glomeris, Gervaisia, and Onomeris (nov.) each use a 
somewhat different method. Thus a coiled Glomeris has a groove in 
the edge of the posterior corner of the first segment into which the 
corners of the second and third segments are fitted, and the middle of 
the last segment rests against the first, which is thus partially exposed. 
In Onomeris there is no groove at the posterior corner of the first seg- 
ment, but a notch somewhat above connects with a curved groove or 
excavation not present in Glomeris, below and in front of which is a 
broad, striated margin which fits under the projecting corners of the 
other segments when the creature is coiled. Onomeris is able to coil 
somewhat more effectively than Glomeris, and the first segment is 
completely concealed. 
In Zephronia the antennae are located at the sides of the head and 
are accommodated under the projecting lobes of the second segment, 
while in Glomeris and Onomeris they are inserted near the middle of 
the face ; they are closer together in Onomeris, and strongly genicu- 
late, the sixth joint being folded against the third ; they lie in two 
deep excavations which extend from near the median line to the 
single vertical row of eyes. This is in strong distinction to Glomeris 
where the vertex is not hollowed out to accommodate the antennae, 
which project beyond the sides of the head into the space covered by 
the second segment. 
Brandtia, p. 43. 
