Page:VCH Essex 1.djvu/232

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A HISTORY OF ESSEX CRYPTOPID^E Eyeless centipedes of medium length and thickness, with twenty-one pairs of short legs, and though somewhat intermediate in form between the preceding and the succeeding families, resembling the latter rather than the former in their slow movements. Cryptops hortensis, Leach. Land. xi. 384 (1815). Maldon, Warley. Tr. Linn. Sac. A widely distributed species, but never oc- curring in any very great numbers. Abun- dant all over central and southern Europe. GEOPHILID^: Long-bodied vermiform centipedes without eyes, and furnished with a large but variable number of legs. 5. Geophilus flavus, De Geer. Mem. Ins. vii. 561 (1778) ( = longicornis, Leach). Brentwood, Maldon, Stock, West Mersea (under Zostera on the beach), Finching- field, Warley, West Horndon, Dagenham, Ingrave, Colchester. Common throughout Europe. Distinguish- able from all the other British species by its long antennal segments. 6. Geophilus proximus, Koch. Syst. d. Myr. p. 1 86 (1847). Brentwood, Finchingfield, Colchester, Riven- hall. Although widely distributed on the conti- nent, this species, so far as our knowledge at present extends, appears to be restricted in its range to the eastern counties of Great Britain. It may be distinguished by the presence of a pair of short oval impressions on the sterna of anterior segments of body. 7. Geophilus carpophagus. Leach. Zool. Misc. iii. 43 (1817). Brentwood, Warley. Common everywhere in England and on the continent. Distinguishable by the ball and socket method of articulation of the an- terior sternal plates. 8. Geophilus truncorum, Meinert. Nat. Tidskr. iv. 94 (1866). Warley, Ingrave. A small species, often overlooked, but ranging throughout the south of England and Wales. Distinguishable by the presence of three strong grooves on the anterior sternal plates. 9. Linoteenia acuminata. Leach. Tr. Linn. Soc. Land. xi. 386 (1814). Warley. Widely distributed in the south of England and on the continent. 10. Linoteenia crassipeSy Koch. Deutschl. Crust. etc. 3, pi. iii. (1835). Brentwood, Warley, Ingrave, Colchester. This species has the same distribution as the last, to which it is nearly allied. The two are the common British luminous centi- pedes which frequently attract attention on damp evenings in the autumn by the emission of a phosphorescent secretion from their ster- nal glands. 11. Linoteenia maritima, Leach. Zool. Misc. iii. 44 (1817). West Mersea (under Zostera on the beach). Fairly common in suitable localities round the coasts of Great Britain and on those of western Europe, living beneath stones be- tween tide marks or under accumulated sea- weed left by the tide. 12. Schendyla nemorensis, Koch. Deutschl. Crust, etc. 9, pi. 4 (1837). Warley. A small and delicate centipede of about the same size and general appearance as G. trun- corum. Found under tree trunks and stones in woods, etc., throughout England and cen- tral Europe. DIPLOPODA Millipedes POLYDESMIDJE Millipedes with from nineteen to twenty body segments, most of which are furnished with paired scent-glands supported on a larger or smaller lateral crest or keel. 13. Polydesmus complanatuSy Linn. Faun. 14. Polydesmus subinteger, Latzel. Bull. Soc. Suecic. ed. 2, p. 502 (1761). Rouen (2), xix. 269 (1883). Stock, Warley Epping Forest, Widford, Walton-on-the-Naze. Walton-on-the-Naze. The commonest and largest British species. A smaller and much scarcer species than Found all over Europe. the foregoing, and known from a few of the 194