SOME TROUBLESOME INVADERS 359 



ordinary drinking cup with muslin tied over the top for 

 more than three months by supplying it daily with three 

 or four drops of water. She gave it occasionally small 

 flies and young croton-bugs, which it ate. Evidently 

 a small supply of water is absolutely necessary to sustain 

 its life. 



Hargitt succeeded in keeping them alive several days and 

 inducing them to eat croton-bugs and house-flies. Miss 

 Murtfeldt found one of them in her house that had cap- 

 tured a small white moth and had eaten quite a hole in the 

 side of the thorax of its victim. She describes the legs 

 of the centipede as moving so swiftly during the struggle 

 with its prey that they were indistinguishable and ap- 

 peared like the spokes in a rapidly revolving wheel. 

 Because of its habits of preying upon insects, this centipede 

 is not regarded as a wholly unwelcome guest in houses. 

 Unhappily it has obtained an unsavory reputation because 

 it evidently does, under provocation, occasionally bite 

 human beings and seems to inject a poison into the wound 

 that, in some persons, causes considerable painful irritation. 



Lintner relates the case of a man's being bitten in two 

 places on the body by this centipede. The animal had 

 hidden between the sheets of the bed and during the night 

 the sleeper felt the pain and getting up found the centi- 

 pede. "The flesh around the bites became much in- 

 flamed and swollen but did not fester." He also records 

 another case of a woman's having stepped on a centipede 

 with her bare foot in the dark. The sensation was much 

 like that of stepping on a tack. The foot became swollen 

 but yielded to a treatment of ammonia and camphor. 

 From what evidence we have it would seem that the bite 

 of this centipede is not highly venomous. It undoubtedly 



