FOREIGN DISTRIBUTION:—
Europe: Trafoi St. Martini, and Capitello, in the Tyrol; (Norman, 50); East Alps, very common; Val-de-Joux; Massif de la Chartreuse Vaulnaveys (25): Bosnia; (22): Norway; Central Europe; Upper Pfaltz; Bohemia; Saxony; Rhaetia; (59).
Genus—METOPONORTHUS Budde-Lund, 1879 (7), p. 4.
Porcellionides Miers, 1876 (44), p. 98.
Flagellum, with two joints; abdomen, narrow; frontal lobe not developed.
The hinder legs of Metoponorthus are proportionately longer than in any other Oniscidæ save Philoscia. Both genera have a narrow abdomen, but Philoscia has an extra joint to the flagellum, and shows no sign of lateral lobes to the head.
Metoponorthus pruinosus Brandt. [Plate XIX.]
1833 Porcellio pruinosus Brandt (3), p. 181.
1840 Porcellio truncatus Milne-Edwards (46), p. 173.
1840 Porcellio maculicornis Koch (34), part 34, pl. XVI.
1853 Porcellio frontalis Lereboullet (39), p. 63, pl. I, fig. 17.
1868 Porcellio pruinosus Bate and Westwood (1), p. 487.
1877 Porcellio (Porcellioides) flavo-vittatus Miers (45), p. 669 pl., LXVIII., fig. 4.
1898 Metoponorthus pruinosus Sars (59), p. 184, pl. LXXX., fig. 2.
Undamaged specimens of Metoponorthus pruinosus are of a beautiful bluish-grey colour, owing to a "bloom" which is easily brushed off, revealing a dark reddish-brown tint beneath it. The antennæ are long and have white markings upon them.