FIELD NATURALISTS CLUB. 5 



Really, when one enquires into the life-history of the centipede, 

 he is after all not nearly the desperate ruffian which mankind 

 makes him out to be. His is a very inoffensive life and one 

 which is devoted to doing good service to the human race, in that 

 he makes constant war upon the cockroaches which devour our 

 clothing and contaminate with their filthy smell our food. True 

 the centipede boasts a pair of shai*p claws which nature has 

 endowed with poisonous properties, but he rarely uses them, except 

 in self-defence, just as we should use our fists if we were hurt or 

 molested when about the duties of daily life and no Policeman 

 is at hand. Like many other things the poor centipede, because 

 of an uncanny appearance (his numerous legs and segmented 

 body) has only to show himself and he is greeted with cries 

 of " Centipede ! St. Peter !! St. Paul !!!" for popular superstition 

 believes that the invocation of these Saints has a paralyzing 

 effect upon his poor hundred legs as they hurry him over the 

 floor in search of the seclusion of a dark hole, and so give his 

 arch-enemy, Man, time to get a weapon with which to despatch 

 him. But centipedes have other foes besides mankind — the fowls, 

 the ants and the toads, and, as we have said before, this poor fellow 

 was in the greatest trouble. A long thin white worm nearly as 

 long again as its victim, was inserting itself into the poor arthropod, 

 which did not seem able to defend itself at all. We watched the. 

 struggle a few moments and then both centipede and parasite were 

 consigned to spirits for examination at some more convenient time. 

 Before we leave centipedes, however, it is interesting to note that 

 the popular superstition in Trinidad with regard to centipedes 

 and scorpions, is that the former " stings" with the two large 

 claws in the last segment of the body, and the scorpion " bites" 

 with the pincer claws. As it happens the facts are just the 

 reverse, the centipede bites with the poison claws directly under 

 its head, and the scorpion " stings" with the sharp sting on the 

 final joint of the tail. 



There was a bare chance of finding out what the black ants 

 were after and where their nest was, so we ascended the hill a 

 few yards further and finally found the rotten remnants of a tree 

 trunk. Rotten logs are oftentimes rich harvest fields to entomo- 

 logical collectors, and forthwith we began to turn over, to cut up, 

 and otherwise examine them. Our first find was one of those 

 small short-tailed ground snakes,* which are said to prey exclu- 

 sively on insects, but which always seem to have empty stomachs 

 whenever they are examined, so that it is somewhat of a puzzle 

 how they do get their living, though their jaws appear to be fit 

 for nothing else but the capture of minute worms, molusks, or 



* Geophis lineatus, 



