XL 
THE LARVAE OF STEMM ATOIULUS. 
In February of the present year I collected some peculiar diplopod 
larvae on an island in the St. John’s River, Grand Bassa County, Li- 
beria. This island, though not in a swampy region, is covered with 
pandanus and other low-land trees, and is no doubt flooded in the 
rainy season. The larv^ were about 30 in number, and pure white 
in color, except a single reddish ocellus. The largest individuals 
measure nearly 5 mm. in length by about .8 mm. ; some are as much 
as one-third smaller. They were guarded by a large female of Stem- 
matoiuhis bellus, which was coiled about them in a manner stiongly 
suggesting that of Scolopendra or Geophilus. They were not en- 
closed in any nest or egg-case, but were lying on moist sand under a 
rotting log. That they were newly hatched is made certain by the 
fact that they had not yet begun to crawl about, and that some are 
still included in a membrane covering the entire animal without dis- 
tinction of parts, apparently the same motionless, pupiform condition 
in which the young of lulidse leave the egg, but which is not known 
in Polydesmidse and Glomerididse. On escaping from this mem- 
brane the larvae of Stemmatoiulus have five-jointed antenae and three 
pairs of six-jointed legs, but they differ from all known six-legged 
diplopod larvae in the possession of thirty-five segments. The six- 
legged larvae of Polyxenus have five segments, while those of the 
Glomeroid^, Polydesmidae, and lulidae have seven. The mother of 
these larv^ had 49 segments, and numerous adult specimens of the 
same species vary only between 48 and 50. 
In connection with the other remarkable and probably primitive 
characters of Stemmatoiulus this peculiarity of the larvae is very sug- 
gestive. The possession of this great number of segments increases 
the size of the embryos and limits their number ; other Diplopoda lay 
about three times as many eggs. We may hence infer that this is 
another of the primitive features of Stemmatoiulus, and that the 
many-segmented embryo and larva are ancestral conditions from 
which a majority of the Diplopoda have advanced. In the light of 
this fact the hitherto unique embryonic feature of the epimorphous 
Chilopoda, the possession of the full adult complement of segments 
and legs, has great importance, as confirming the view that the Prog- 
oneata and Opisthogoneata may be remotely descended from a many- 
Brandtia, p. 47. 
