ZOOLOGY, 



SOME NOTES ON COLLECTING AND PEESERYINC 



MYKIAPODA. 



By T. D. GIBSON-CARMICHAEL. 



N" EWPORT, writing in 1844, remarked : "The myriapoda 

 have been more neglected by naturalists than almost any 

 other division of articulata ; " and the remark, as far as this 

 country is concerned, still remains' true. On the Continent of 

 late years much has been done both in the way of description 

 of known species and research into the internal anatomy of the 

 group ; so much, indeed, that Haase, in the introduction to his 

 pamphlet on ' Schlesiens Chilopoden,' claims for his study the 

 merit that it is quite in accordance with the spirit of the time. 

 It is much to be wished that some few, of the many persons 

 interested in the fauna of this country, may take up the subject, 

 at least so far as to collect specimens in their own districts, so 

 that material may not be wanting to form a satisfactory list of 

 our native species. They are not very numerous, yet they are 

 to be found everywhere ; and much might be done at little 

 trouble by our collectors of shells or of beetles. 



All that is needed for collecting them is a fairly wide-mouthed 

 bottle, with some cotton-wool or bits of moss and broken bark 

 in it. The creatures are easily caught with the fingers (the very 

 small specimens are lifted by being touched with the wetted 

 finger-tip), and on being placed in the bottle they run in among 

 the moss or cotton - wool, where they become somewhat en- 

 tangled, and lie still, without biting each other's limbs off, as 

 they are apt to do when placed in an empty box or bottle. 



Both centipedes and millipedes are to be found under stones, 

 in decaying wood, under loose bark, in fungi, in rotting fruit 

 — in fact, in most places where beetles are to be found. It 

 is as well, on turning over a stone or raising a piece of bark 

 or wood, to do so slowly, as many of the centipedes are very 



