126 



FIRST BOOK OF ZOOLOGY. 



millepedes, have a long, cylindrical, and oftentimes shiny body, 

 composed of a great many segments so smoothly joined to- 

 gether that it is difficult to see the separation between them. 

 The antennae are short, there are no long caudal append- 

 ages, and the legs are short and feeble. At first sight it 

 would appear that these creatures were exceptional among 

 insects and spiders, in having two pairs of legs to one seg- 

 ment ; but it has been learned, by studying the very young 

 millepede, that there is really but one pair of legs to a seg- 

 ment, but that the segments grow together in pairs, so that 

 each apparent segment is really two segments united. 



compound eye. v<P 



antenna. \ 



FIG. 11. A COMMON MILLIPEDE. The line underneath the figure represonts the length of 

 the specimen from which the drawing was made. A, a Magnified View of the Head of the 

 Milliped represented above ; B, a Magnified View of the Left Jaw. 



These creatures live on decaying matter, and are slow and 

 weak in all their movements. When touched, or alarmed, 

 they coil up in a closely-wound roll. The body is hard, and 

 the animal can be stuck on a card for the cabinet. The eggs, 

 to the number of sixty or more, are laid in little burrows 



