156 



THE ANIMALS AND MAN 



table feeders, though some may feed on dead animal 

 matter. The galley-worms (Julus) (fig. 64), large, black- 

 ish, cylindrical millipeds found under stones and logs 

 and leaves and in loose soil, are familiar forms. They 

 crawl slowly and when disturbed curl up and emit a mal- 



odorous fluid. They can easily be 

 kept alive in shallow glass vessels 

 with a layer of earth in the bottom, 

 and their habits and life-history may 

 thus be studied. They should be 

 fed sliced apples, green leaves, grass, 

 strawberries, fresh ears of corn, etc. 

 They are not poisonous and may 

 be handled with impunity. They lay 

 their eggs in little spherical cells or 

 nests in the ground. An English 

 species of which the life-history has 

 been studied lays from 60 to 100 

 eggs at a time. The eggs of this 

 species hatch in about twelve days. 

 The lithobians and centipeds are 

 flattened and have but a single pair 

 of legs on each body-ring. They are 

 predaceous in habit, catching and 

 killing insects, snails, earthworms, 

 etc. They can run rapidly, and 

 FIG. 66. A centiped, Scolo- have the first pair of legs modified 



pendra sp. (Natural -^ a p a j r o f poison-claws, which 



are bent forward so as to lie near the 



mouth. The common "skein" centiped (Scutigera for- 

 ceps) (fig. 65) is yellowish and has fifteen pairs of 

 legs, long 4o-segmented antennae, and nine large and 

 six smaller dorsal segmental plates. The true centipeds 

 (Scolopendra) (fig. 66) have twenty-one to twenty-three 

 body-rings, each with a pair of legs, and the antennae have 



