3172 



THE JOINTED ANIMALS 



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the other two there is only one pair of ocelli. Except in Cermatobius , the coxae of 

 the last five pairs of limbs are furnished with organs known as the coxal pores, 

 which are the apertures of special glands. 



The members of this order are found in all temperate and tropical regions, 

 living often in pairs under stones, logs of wood, etc. The species of Lithobius are 

 particularly abundant, and reach their largest size in the temperate parts of the 

 Northern Hemisphere. A few only have been recorded from India and Australia, 

 but none occur in Africa south of the Sahara, nor, with the single exception of a 

 possibly introduced species in South America. In the Southern Hemisphere the 

 genus is largely replaced by Henicops, which is represented in Europe and North 

 America by a single small species, but has many larger forms in South Africa, 

 Australia, New Zealand, and Chili. The single species of Cermatobius occurs in 

 Halmahira, one of the Moluccas. There are about half a dozen species of 



Lithobius in the British Islands, one of 

 the commonest and largest being L. 

 forficatus, represented in the figure. 

 Almost equally common and equally 

 large, although seldom found close to 

 houses, is L. variegatus, a brightly- 

 colored species with banded legs, which 

 is confined to the British and Channel 

 Islands. The largest known species is 

 the handsome L. fasciatus, measuring two 

 inches in length, and occurring in many 

 of the southern countries of Europe. In 

 all cases the females which may be recognized by the presence of a pair of 

 dwarfed, claw-tipped appendages behind the last pair of legs lay their sticky 

 eggs one at a time, and roll them in the soil until they become coated with earth, 

 and consequently protected from observation. The young, like those of Sczttigera, 

 are hatched from the egg with only seven pairs of legs, the remaining eight pairs 

 being added during growth. The food of these centipedes consists of worms, 

 insects, etc. , which are killed by the poisonous bite of their destroyer. 



The second order, or Scolopendromorpha, contains the giants of the group, 

 some of the tropical species of Scolopendra reaching a length of almost twelve 

 inches. The legs vary in number from twenty-one to twenty-three pairs, and there 

 are either nineteen pairs of stigmata, as in the aberrant genus Plutonium from 

 Italy, or more usually nine or ten pairs situated upon the third, fifth, eighth (some- 

 times also the seventh), tenth, and alternate segments of even number. The eyes 

 are either absent or consist of four ocelli on each side of the head, and the segments 

 of the antennae vary in number from seventeen to twenty-nine. The members of 

 this order are referable to four families, the Scolopendridce , Scolopocryptopidce, New- 

 Portiidcz, and Cryptopidce. Both the Scolopocryptopidce and Newportiidce have 

 twenty-three pairs of legs, but in the latter, which is confined to the South- Amer- 

 ican region, the legs of the last pair are clawless and have their terminal segments 

 many jointed and evidently functioning as antennae, so that the centipedes may be 



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COMMON ENGLISH CENTIPEDE- 

 (Natural size.) 



