Page:Wood 1865 - The Myriapoda of North America.djvu/76

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THE MYRIAPODA OF NORTH AMERICA.
211

S. spinigerus.

S. fulvus, maculis saturate viridis maximis ornatus; capite minute punctata, infra punctorum magnorum serie instructo; oculis suborbiculatis; antennis longis; segmentis 48; scutis leviter sparse punctatis; squama preanali triangula.

Fulvous, ornamented with very large deep-green maculæ; head minutely punctate, furnished inferiorly with a series of large puncta; eyes suborbicular; antennas long; segments 48; scuta sparsely. lightly punctate; preanal scale triangular.

S. spinigerus, Wood, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., 1864, p. 15.

Fig. 38. Fig 39.
The color of this species is fulvous, often varying towards orange. On each scutum there is a large dark-green transverse crescentic blotch. This is often so wide superiorly as to involve the whole of the dorsum. In some individuals there are lateral series of white blotches, and occasionally a black line on each side. These are, however, not common. The head has a strongly pronounced median furro^y, and is greenish superiorly. The eye-spots are somewhat orbicular, with occasionally a tendency to become tetragonal or polygonal. The antennæ are longer than in S. marginattis. The scuta are not rough, and are very lightly or even obsoletely furrowed beneath. The spines on the inferior surface of the legs are very numerous and acute. The male (Fig. 38) appendages are formed of two main portions joined together, as in S. marginatus. The large plate of the main process is broad. The upper border of its face has a wavy outline. Externally it is produced into an alar portion, which ends in a blunt process at right angles to it. The inner piece is composed of a basilar and superior joint. The basilar is very long. The other (Fig. 39) is curved, and presents on one aspect a strongly convex, on the other a strongly concave surface. It ends in a blunt point, and is armed with a large blunt process and an acute spine. The female appendages appear to consist on each side of a process deeply placed within the body,—this is thin on its free margin, which is rounded, though somewhat acuminate; below it is contracted and thickened. The three pairs of feet immediately in front of the genital aperture in the male have their coxæ produced into long processes. These are often of a curious form, but do not seem constant in this. The fourth and even fifth coxæ have small processes.

Hab. Florida. South Carolina.—Smithsonian Institution.