154 Second Report on Economic Zoology. 



Tour different species of GamnHidR' were found belonginfj to four 

 distinct genera. 



Mr. Albert Michael says that they not only do no harm but are 

 beneficial, as they destroy other mites and insects. 



They are all found either on the ground, in damp places, or 

 pnrasitic on some animal or bird. 



Millipedes and Centipedes. 



The following notes on Millipedes and Centipedes have been 

 prepared for the Board* : — 



Millipedes and Centipedes belong t<i a group of the animal 

 kingdom knowu as the Myrlopoda. These animals are known 

 by their having legs on every ring or segment of the body. In 

 the Millipedes tliere are two pairs of legs to each segment, in the 

 Centipedes one pair only. These differences are important to notice, 

 as the j\Iillipedes are injurious and the Centipedes are beneficial to 

 the agriculturalist and horticulturalist. 



They are found in all manner of places, both in the field and in 

 the garden, and are especially attracted by decaying vegetation, such 

 as heaps of leaf-mould, rotting stalks, etc. They are also found 

 crawling about under the bark of trees and in the soil. The 

 difference in structure is also accompanied by a difference in habits, 

 for Centipedes are very active and carnivorous. Millipedes are 

 mostly herbivorous, living also upon sound and decaying vegetable 

 matter. The bite of some Centipedes in the tropics is very poisonous 

 to man, but none are so in this country. Millipedes are very often 

 known as " false wire worm," but can easily be told from true wire- 

 worm by the great number of legs the former have. The Millipedes 

 have the mouth formed for chewing, there being two powerful biting 

 mandibles with which they devour the roots of plants. Centipedes 

 are provided with poison-claws. 



The life-history of the Snake Millipede (Julm terrestris) is as 

 follows : The lemale deposits her eggs from May to July in a nest 

 made of pieces of earth fastened together ^^^th saliva, rounded in 

 form, and with a small hole at the top through which the eggs are 

 dropped. Tlie eggs vary in number from sixty to a hundred. The 

 hole is stopped up, and they mature in ten to fourteen days. The 

 young Millipedes have only three pairs of legs. The other legs 

 appear in groups by degrees. 



* These notes have appeared as Leaflet No. 94 of the Board of Agriculture. 



