376 Mr. Newport on the Class Myriapoda, Order Chilopoda. 



on the superior internal surface of each femur, with two spines in a longitudi- 

 nal series on the inferior surface, and eighteen joints to the antennae, are com- 

 mon to several distinct species, of which S. subspinipes, Leach, is the type. A 

 like number of joints to the antennae and spines on the superior margin of the 

 femur, and an entire absence of spines on the under surface indicate another 

 division; while twenty joints to the antennae, a club-shaped, angulated form 

 of the posterior pair of legs, and three longitudinal series of spinulae on the 

 under surface of the femur, are characters that distinguish a third subdivision, 

 of which the true L. morsitans, Linn, is the type. 



The colour and markings of the body in recent specimens are of great 

 assistance in the identification of species, when taken together with structural 

 characters, although they cannot alone be depended on, especially in the exa- 

 mination of those which have been long preserved in spirit. Each family of 

 the Chilopoda is distinguished by some general peculiarity of colour or of 

 markings on the body that is common to nearly the whole of the species of 

 that group. Thus the Cermatiidce have longitudinal bands of colour on the 

 dorsal surface, and almost invariably annulations on the legs ; the Lithobiidae 

 are nearly all of a brown or ferruginous hue ; while in the Scolopendridoe a 

 yellow or a ferruginous colour of body, with transverse bands of dark green 

 or blue on the margins of the segments, is exceedingly common, more espe- 

 cially in tropical species, and longitudinal bands of colour are rare. 



The habits of the Scolopendridce are decidedly carnivorous, and their bite is 

 venomous ; but although quickly fatal to insects and small invertebrata, the 

 injury it occasions to those who suffer from its effects in warm climates is ex- 

 ceedingly various, and seems to depend much on the state of health and con- 

 stitution of the sufferer and his susceptibility to disease. But added to this 

 explanation I would suggest, that the virulence of the poison of the centipede, 

 and the degree of injury inflicted by it, may depend much on the circumstance 

 as to whether the animal has recently bitten and expended its venom on some 

 other object; in which case the injury occasioned by all poisonous animals is 

 undoubtedly less severe. The diminished virulence of the poison may be satis- 

 factorily accounted for by what we now know of the manner in which the se- 

 cretions of all glands are elaborated*, by the growth, bursting and diffluence of 



* Trans. Roy. Soc Edinburgh, 1842. 



