CENTIPEDES 49 



have been collected from the Cape Verde Islands and the Gala- 

 pagos. In the former case they inhabit crevices in the crust of worm 

 tubes which cover all rocks at low tide inside bays, and in the latter 

 large empty barnacle shells also at low tide level. Bonnell (1930) 

 obtained a number of Mixophilus indicus from under stones and 

 soft moist soil along with various Polychaete worms in the bed of 

 the Cooum River, Madras. As a result of experiments on their 

 resistance to submersion he concluded that little air is required 

 by this species; the tracheae store enough for 24 hours and in 

 addition air is entangled by a loop of the posterior end of the body 

 and in chitinous channels in the coxae of the last legs. In this 

 latter respect they appear to differ from H. suhmarina and S. 

 maritimus, both of which however can survive several days im- 

 mersion in sea water without any ill effects. The literature on 

 marine myriapods has been reviewed by Cloudsley-Thompson 

 (1948, 1951). 



The idea of centipedes living in water has persisted from classi- 

 cal times, for Pliny wrote of a marine 'Scolopendra' as a very 

 poisonous animal, but there is little doubt that he was referring to 

 one of the marine worms. The German naturalist Gesner gave an 

 account in 1569 of a similar 'marine Scolopendra' which, soaked 

 in oil or pounded up with honey, was believed to cause the hair to 

 fall. Charles Owen, in his Essay towards a Natural History of Ser- 

 pents (1752) wrote: 'The Scolopendra is a little venomous worm 

 and amphibious. When it wounds any, there follows a blueness 

 about the affected part and an itch all over the body like that 

 caused by nettles. Its weapons of mischief are much the same with 

 those of the spider only larger; its bite is very tormenting, and pro- 

 duces not only pruriginous pain in the flesh, but very often dis- 

 traction of the mind. These little creatures make but a mean 

 figure in the ranks of animals, yet have been terrible in their ex- 

 ploits, particularly in driving people out of their country. Thus 

 the people of Rhytium, a city of Crete, were constrained to leave 

 their quarters for them (Aelian, lib. XV., cap. 26).' This is the 

 only recorded instance of a mass migration of centipedes although 

 they have accompanied migrating armies of millipedes. 



A number of cases of pseudoparasitism have been recorded in 

 which both centipedes and millipedes have been found living in 



D S.S.C.M. 



