33 



HA-RDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



motionless, was lulus terrestris — a worm - like 

 fellow, little more than an inch in length, almost as 

 round as a piece of wire, covered with plated 

 armour, like a coat of mail. There he lay coiled 

 round into a disc the size of a waistcoat-button, 

 with his numerous short legs visible like a fringe 

 throughout his entire length. It required some 

 little effort to get him uncoiled, and extended at 

 full length. I must confess that there was not 

 much about him that was attractive, but under the 

 circumstances any living thing had its interest. 

 And even awlulus is not without interest of its own, 

 for the appearance of this coiled-up creature, seem- 

 ingly deficient of life or energy, was sufficient to 



Sn\- 



'''iiiwtnm 



Fig. 21. lulus terrestris. 



remind one that, once upon a time, a very Clevel- 

 and industrious American doctor (Dr. Leidy) dis- 

 sected I cannot tell how many scores of these crea- 

 tures, and explored the mysteries of their internal 

 economy. The result was the publication of a 

 memoir, in quarto, with several plates, entitled " A 

 Flora and Eauna within Living Animals." Dr. Leidy 

 found several species of minute parasitic plants, of 

 a fungoid or algal character, and some parasitic 

 animals of low organization, living and flourishing 

 Avithin the large intestine of lulus marginatus. Pro- 

 bably these, or similar organisms, are to be found in 

 lulus terrestris. This very individual from under a 

 stone may have a flora and fauna within its intes- 

 tinal canal. 



"W hen the lulus does move, and does put all his 

 long line of short legs on each side of his body into 

 motion, what an exhibition he makes of himself ! 

 It seems useless to think of counting them. In 

 some country places he is called " forty-foot," but 

 that is quite a misnomer, for he seems certainly to 

 have double that number on one side. This is one 

 of the Myriapods not generally classed with insects, 

 although some recent authors have ventured to 

 associate them therewith. Dr. Packard has done 

 so: he may be right, we do not care to judge. This 

 is what he says about lulus. It is long, cylindrical, 



hard, with numerous feet, short and weak, attached 

 to the under surface of the body, nearly in the 

 middle of the abdomen. The antennae are short 

 and filiform. They crawl rather slowly, and at rest 

 curve the body into a ring. They live on vegetable 

 substances, or eat dead earthworms or snails. Iu 

 the spring the female deposits her eggs in masses 

 of sixty or seventy, in a hole excavated for the pur- 

 pose under the ground : after three weeks or more 

 the young make their appearance. A great deal 

 more he says about them, but as my space is nearly 

 filled up, I must take another peep under the stone, 

 and have done. 



There they go ! one, two, three,— at least a dozen, 

 some running hither and thither, others rolled up 

 like a ball. In school-boy days we called them 

 "old sows," in Scotland I think they are called 

 " slaters," but the gardener knows them as wood- 

 lice, and to him they are much better known than 

 loved. Pass them by, and let them rest in peace ; 

 we shall always be able to find them, therefore let 

 them alone until a more convenient season. They 

 are not insects either, for they belong to the Crus- 

 tacea, and are much nearer akin to crabs and lobsters 

 than to beetles and butterflies. 



"Insects found under a stone"! After all, my 

 young readers will say, what a misnomer, since none 

 of them are insects, at least according to English 

 authorities, neither the spider, nor lulus, nor wood- 

 lice — only some little creatures that are skipping 

 about like fleas — they are insects. Click, click, how 

 they leap ! Surely they must have a spring under 

 their tails. " Springtails " they are well called, and 

 these are very like Macrotoma plumbed. By means 

 of the spring-like process situated at the end of the 

 body, where the tail ought to be, and which is 

 tucked under them, they can take prodigious leaps. 



Some are lead-coloured, others are violet, with a 

 pinkish tinge, and others paler still, according to 

 age. Turn back the stone ! All who desire to know 

 anything about " Springtails " have only to turn 

 back to Science-Gossip for 1867, and, at page 53, 

 read what Mr. S. J. Mclntire has so well written 

 about them. 



The trip into the garden did not furnish me this 

 time with any but the commonest objects; just 

 what anybody would find, at almost any time, by 

 turning over a big stone. To a certain extent I 

 was disappointed, but on further consideration I 

 am satisfied on one point, that common as were the 

 little creatures I met with, there is, after all, a 

 very great deal about them that I don't know; and 

 this resolution, as a consequence has followed, that 

 I fully intend to make their acquaintance again. 

 AVe are all of us very apt to despise common 

 things, just because they are common, and for that 

 reason know very little about them. 



" A poor brotherhood who walk the earth 

 Pitied, and, where they are not known, despised." 



