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FIRST BOOK OF ZOOLOGY. 



iinllepedes, liave a long, cylindrical, and oftentimes sliiny body, 

 composed of a great many segments so smoothly joined to- 

 gether that it is difficult to see the separation between them. 

 The antennse are short, there are no long caudal append- 

 ages, and the legs are short and feeble. At first sight it 

 would appjear that these creatures were exceptional among 

 insects and spiders, in having two pairs of legs to one seg- 

 ment ; but it has been learned, by studying the very young 

 millepede, that there is really but one pair of legs to a seg- 

 ment, but that the segments grow together in pairs, so that 

 each apparent segment is really two segments united. 



compmind eye. \M^ 



antenna. 



A B 



Fig. 118.— a Common Millipede. The line underneath the flj?nre represents the lenprth of 

 the specimen from whioh the drawinpr was made. A, a Mas-nified View of the Head of the 

 Milhped represented above ; B, a Magnified View of the Left Jaw. 



These creatures live on decaying matter, and are slow and 

 w^eak in all their movements. When touched, or alarmed, 

 they coil up in a closely-wound roll. The body is hard, and 

 the animal can be stuck on a card for the cabinet. The eggs, 

 to the number of sixtv or more, are laid in little burrows 



