Chilopoda. 



12; 



food consists of various insects, spiders, mice, or any living thing Table-case 

 that they are able to overpower. The largest knov^^n centipede ^°- ^^• 

 {Scolopendra gigas), which is an inhabitant of the West Indies and 

 South America, sometimes reaches a length of almost a foot. The 

 genus Alipes, which is confined to tropical Africa, is remarkable 

 for the very peculiar structure of the posterior legs, wliicli are 

 modified to form a stridulatory 

 organ, whereby the animal emits 

 a hissing sound. Ethmostignius 

 t )■ ig 07102)0(1 II H is the largest and 

 commonest of the tropical African 

 species of centipedes, and it is 

 also met with less frequently in 

 the more temperate parts of Africa. 

 Several of the species belonging 

 to this order are very widely dis- 

 tributed, and two of them (Scolo- 

 pendra morsitans and -S'. suhspi- 

 uipea), have been introduced, like 

 the common rat or cockroach, into 

 most of the seaport towns of the 

 world, but, unlike these animals, 

 they are unable to maintain them- 

 selves as far north as England. 

 This order includes only a single 

 British member [Cryptopfi hor- 

 tcnsis), which is not unconnnon 

 in gardens. 



Order— Craterostigmo- 

 morpha. 



The dorsal plates number 

 twenty- one in this order, but there 

 are only fifteen pairs of legs, and 

 the stigmata are reduced in num- 

 ber as in the Lithobiomorpha. 



There is only a single species {Cratci'ostigniiis (((sDicoiianiis), 

 which occurs in Tasmania. 



Order Lithobiomorpha. 



Chilopoda in which the body is short and furnished with only 

 fifteen pairs of legs, and six or seven pairs of stigmata arranged 



Fig. 89. 

 Scolopendra morsitaiis (after Koch). 



