MYRIAPODA. 99 



render them effective instruments in dividing the fibres of 

 rotting wood, or the roots and leaves of decaying plants. 

 Most of them emit a very rank disagreeable odour. The 

 female Millepede deposits her eggs, which are very minute, 

 in the earth, or in the earthy powder of decayed wood. 

 The young, when first hatched, are quite destitute of 

 limbs, and have much the appearance of microscopic 

 kidney beans. In the course of a few days, however, 

 they throw off their first skin, and make their appear- 

 ance, divided into about eight segments, of which the 

 three that immediately follow the head, have each a 

 pair of legs. In a few days more, a second moult takes 

 place ; the body is enlarged, the number of segments in- 

 creased, and the number of limbs augmented to seven 

 pairs on the segments succeeding the head. At the end 

 of a month, or thereabouts, after another change of clothes, 

 the young millepede appears with twenty-six pairs of 

 feet, and so the j)rocess of exuviation is again and again 

 repeated, until the creature arrives at its matm-e con- 

 dition. 



The Centipedes* (Scolope^idra) (Fig. 55) ai*e much more 

 formidable creatiu'cs than tha millepedes ; they have a broad 

 flattened body, composed of about foiu'-and-twenty seg- 

 ments, to each of which is appended a pair of stout 

 jointed limbs, well adapted, by the energy and activity of 

 their movements, to the pursuit of active prey. The 

 mouth of the Scolopendra is a terrible instrument of de- 

 struction, being not only provided with horny jaws, re- 

 sembling those of Julus, but armed with a tremendous 

 pair of massive and cm-ved fangs, ending in sharp points, 

 and perforated near their terminations by a minute orifice, 

 through which a poisonous fluid is instilled into the 

 wounds they inflict. Several small species are common 

 in our gardens : but in hot climates they grow to a great 

 size, and their bite, though rarely fatal, is more dangerous 

 than the sting of the scorpion. 



The Giant Scolopendra (Scolopendra gigas), common in South 

 America, measures upwards of a foot in length, and an inch and a 

 quarter across its body. Other species, scarcely less formidable, in- 

 habit India and the adjacent islands, and abound in the hottest 

 parts of Africa. They creep into houses, lurk under articles of fur- 

 niture and behind wainscots, hide themselves in drawers and cup- 

 boards, and sometimes are found even in beds, much to the disgust 



* Centum, a hundred ; pes, a foot. 



F 2 



