CENTIPEDES 



31/3 



"& 



CENTIPEDE (Scolopendra morsitans) DEVOURING A 

 BEETLE LARVA. (Reduced.) 



said to have a pair of feelers at each end of the body. The Cryptopida resemble 

 the preceding in being blind, but have only twenty-one pairs of legs. They are all 

 of small size, rarely exceeding an inch in length, and are spread all over the world, 

 extending farther to the north than any other forms. One, namely, Cryptops 

 hortensis, is by no means uncommon in England. The most important forms 

 belong, however, to the Scolopendrida , which in number of genera and species is far 

 superior to the others. Like the Cryptopidce they have twenty-one pairs of legs, 

 but the tarsi of these append- 

 ages are bisegmented, and there 

 are four eyes on each side of the 

 head. From the shores of the 

 Mediterranean in the west, and 

 from China and Japan in the 

 east, this family spreads south- 

 ward over the entire Eastern 

 Hemisphere, while in America 

 it ranges from the Southern 

 United States to Chili and 

 Argentina. The larger members 

 of the group are a foot in length, 

 and very venomous, although their bite is seldom fatal to man. The Scolopendrida 

 live under stones and logs, and in the tropics frequently take refuge in bedding, 

 boots, or clothes. Their food consists principally of cockroaches, beetles, worms, 

 etc. ; but they do not seem to be particular as to diet, since some have been found 



devouring lizards of larger size than themselves, and one 

 kept for more than a year in the L,ondon Zoological 

 Gardens was fed upon mice. The female lays her eggs 

 in clusters like berries on the ground in some damp 

 obscure place, and coiling herself round them remains 

 immovable until the young are hatched and have gained 

 strength enough to scatter in search of prey. When 

 kept without food in captivity the mother will feed upon 

 her young. The growth of these centipedes, and prob- 

 ably of all members of the group, is accompanied by the 

 casting of the entire integument. The membrane at the 

 back and sides of the head splits, the head plate turns 

 forward, and through the aperture thus made the new 

 centipede gradually struggles, leaving behind the old skin 

 with its posterior segments retracted within those that lie 

 in front like the pieces of a telescope. The genera of 

 Scolopendridce present a strong family likeness to each 

 other; one of the most remarkable being the African 

 Alipes, which has the last three segments of the last pair 

 of legs flattened and leaf -like. The reason of this modification is unknown, but 

 the creature is said to make a noise by knocking and rubbing its legs together. 



UPPER SURFACE OF HEAD 



OF Geophilus tenuitar- 

 sus (much enlarged). 



