Page:Wood 1865 - The Myriapoda of North America.djvu/85

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
220
THE MYRIAPODA OF NORTH AMERICA.

P. hispidipes.

P. olivaceo-brunneus, inimaculatus; scuto anale triangulare piloso, apice truncato etdecurvato; pedibus hispidis; appendicibus masculis brevibus, robustis, spina terminale modica, ultima abrupte curvata, dense pilosa. (Fig. 48.)

Olive-brown, immaculate; anal scutum triangular, with long hairs; apex truncate and decurvate; feet roughly hairy; male appendages short, robust; their terminal spine moderate, distally abruptly curvate, densely pilose.

P. hispidipes, Wood, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., 1864, p. 7.

Fig. 48.
The side plates are rather short, with their edges much thickened. The head has its vertex strongly canaliculate. Its anterior face is marked with two small punctiform impressions. The lower border is not very strongly emarginate, and is set with a fringe of short thick hairs. The antennæ are mostly dark-colored, scarcely at all clavate, and coarsely pubescent. The feet are rough, with closely set, stiff hairs. The anal scutum is prolonged posteriorly, so as to come almost to a blunt point. The appendages in the male are short and thick. Their terminal spine is slightly curved at its base, thence is nearly straight, save at its distal extremity, where it is abruptly curved, becoming nearly horizontal. It is beset with very numerous long hairs. I have examined them in eighteen specimens, and found them to agree perfectly. The female appendages consist of a pair of short, conoidal, very pilose processes, which have an opening along their inner edge. Length, 1⅛ inches.

Hab. Illinois.—Smithsonian Collection. R. Kennicott.


Var.? P. læte castaneus, fulvo vel rubro maculatus, linea nigra dorsali ornatus; laminis lateralibus marginibus rubris vel fulvis.

Var.? Bright chestnut, maculate with red or yellow, ornamented with a black dorsal line; margins of the lateral laminæ red or yellowish.

Wood, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., 1864, p. 8.


This is possibly a distinct species, but as I have seen but a very few individuals, and the male genital appendages do not differ from those of P. hispidipes, I prefer not risking a synonym. Whether the spots are yellowish or red in the living animal, the length of time the specimens have been preserved in alcohol precludes me from deciding.

The spots are sometimes arranged regularly—two large ones on each side of the mesial line, and a row of small ones on the posterior border.

Hab. Illinois.—Smithsonian Collection. R. Kennicott.