Page:Wood 1865 - The Myriapoda of North America.djvu/92

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THE MYRIAPODA OF NORTH AMERICA.
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anterior. The head is bright-chestnut, and is ornamented with a median furrow on its vertex, and a pair of impressed dots on each side of its face. Its inferior border is medianly moderately emarginate. The margins of the side plates are somewhat thickened. The anal scutum is yellowish, small, subtriangular, and distinctly emarginate posteriorly. The feet are very slender, and are shortly pilose. The femora of the hinder ones are armed each with a small spine on their distal extremity. The small male appendages are hairy at the base. They are armed with a broad, obtuse, spinous process, and a slender curved spine besides the terminal. The latter is robust, and is bent with a double curve, that is, anteriorly and laterally. I have dedicated this species to my friend, Dr. Hayden, whose name is inseparably connected with the natural history of the Far West.

Hab. Oregon.—Museum of the Smithsonian.


Subgenus STRONGYLOSOMA.

Corpus cylindricum. Laminæ laterales subnullæ.

Body cylindrical. Lateral laminæ very small.

P. eruca.

P. brunneus? robustus; antennis brevibus, pilosis, haud clavatis; scutis subrude punctatis; pedibus parvis, gracilibus, modice hirsutis.

Brown? robust; antennæ short, pilose, not clavate; scuta subrudely punctate; feet small, slender, moderately hirsute.

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

Judging from the badly preserved alcoholic specimens, the color of this species is reddish-brown, with the side plates a lighter color. The body is very robust. The head has a median furrow on its vertex, and its lower border emarginate. The side plates, excepting the posterior, which are better pronounced, have but the posterior angles, which are acute. The scuta appear to have a narrow edging of black posteriorly. The terminal scutum is subtriangular, very prolonged and very thick posteriorly. I have never had an opportunity of examining the male organs. Those of the female are very pilose, and are formed of two portions. They are contracted at their bases, and expanded above, somewhat as a reversed flattened cone. The basal piece is thicker and less hairy than the other. The distal piece is set into it, and has an opening along the free extremity.

Hab. Oregon.—Museum of the Smithsonian.