2l8 



INSECTS 



I begin by stepping outside the insects altogether 

 and deahng with the common house "centipede" or 

 "thousand legged worm." It is a frail yet formidable 

 looking creature with a large 

 number of long slender legs, 

 yellowish-gray in color and 

 mottled with blackish. It has 

 a pair of long, many-jointed 

 feelers and the last pair of 

 legs are unusually extended 

 so that they give a weird im- 

 pression of danger that makes 

 most people hesitate about in- 

 terfering, except through the 

 agency of a broom or similar 

 weapon. It is most commonly 

 seen in cellars or on damp 

 walls, but may occur almost 

 anywhere in the house, and 

 its mission is quite innocent; 

 praiseworthy in fact, for it is 

 predatory on other household 

 insects, feeding on roaches, 

 bed-bugs, moths and such sim- 

 ilar creatures as it is able to 

 get hold of. The specimens 

 should really never be inter- 

 fered with at all ; but few per- 

 sons like their looks and there 

 is neither danger nor difficulty 

 in killing them. At a touch 

 the thing collapses into a struggling mass of legs, which 

 continue to wiggle for some little time after they are 

 separated from the body. The natural habitat of 

 species of this kind is under the bark of trees, under logs 



Fig. ioi.— a house centipede, Scm- 

 tigera forceps. 



