32 BURMA, ITS PEOPLE AND PRODUCTIONS. 



Family Inachidse. 



ChOEISTS LOXGISPIN0S. 



Sub-class PODOSOMATA. 



This is an aberrant group without respiratory organs, the abdomen rudimentary 

 and unsegmentt'd. Tlio thorax in four segments, each carrying a pair of many- 

 jointed legs. Sexes distinct. They arc marine spider-like animals, mostly parasitical, 

 furnished with a rostrate head and four ocelli. 



EHOPALOBHTN-cHirs Keoteri, Wood-Masou. Andamans. 



This remarkable new generic form is described by its disco%'erer (J.A.S.B. 1873, 

 Part II. p. 171), who dredged it in 25 fathoms off Port Blair, "at which depth the 

 bottom was clothed with a dense tangle of filamentous algse, so closely resembling the 

 animal in point of colour and form, that the latter was with difficulty distinguishable." 



Class MYEIAPODA. 



Head distinct. Thorax and abdomen not differentiated, but divided into seg- 

 ments. Two antenna;. Feet always more than eight pairs in the adult. No 

 metamorphosis. The young have four segments and four legs, but at each successive 

 moult their number is increased. 



Order CHILOGNATHA. 



Body more or less cylindncal and chitinous or shelly. Two pairs of legs on each 

 segment {somite), except the first five or six. 



Family lulidse. 

 The Millipedes (lulus) are very harmless and sluggish animals, feeding on decayed 

 wood and vegetable substances, and when touched roll themselves into a flat coil. 

 In moving, a series of undulations or waves passes along the whole line of legs in a very 

 regular and pleasing manner. In the eyes of the ignorant these harmless animals are 

 often confounded with the fonnidable members of the next order. 



Order CHILOPODA. 



Body depressed, submembranous, one pair of legs on each segment. Two 

 anterior pair of legs modified into foot-jaws, whereof the second pair is perforated for 

 the discharge of a poisonous secretion. Animal feeders. 



Family Cermatiidse. 

 Ceematia nobilis, Templeton. Maulmain. 



Family Scolopendridae. 



The Centipedes (Scolopendra) are active animals which harbour in cracks and 

 under stones, for which their flattened form is well suited. They are eminently 

 raptorial, and will seize any li^-ing creature they are capable of oveiiiowering. The 

 bite of their venomous jaws is veiy painful, and the larger species can inflict a severe 

 wound on a tender skin by the grasp of their legs. Many species arc phosphorescent. 

 Dr. Mason observes, " A specimen now before me, that fell from the tliatch-roof upon 

 a lady's shoulder, measures nine inches in length, and one inch and a quarter in 

 circumference," and adds, " A small centipede [Scolopendra pJwspJiorea), which emits a 

 strong phosphorescent light, is very common. It does not, however, appear to give out 

 its light until it is wounded, or at least attacked, when the whole of the part that 

 has been touched suddenly becomes a living blaze, in no way dependent on the 

 respiration, as in the fire-flies. There is a small dark line down the back and 

 indications of the joints of the body, but each lobe glows like a mass of phosphorus." 



ScoLOPENBEA iNEEMis, Newport. Tenassorim. 



