The Wonderful Ways of Insects and Spiders [ 285 



are spread wide apart and keep in rapid motion. Their sensitive 

 tips serve as feelers and relay information about the nature of 

 the animal's surroundings. If they pause over something that sug- 

 gests food, "daddy" stops running to investigate further with the 

 little feelers (palpi) under its head. 



Observing Daddy Longlegs: A daddy longlegs makes a most re- 

 warding little captive. You can keep one for a while by simply 

 putting a large glass tumbler over it. Place a few drops of sweet- 

 ened water within convenient reach of the legs. It is amusing to 

 watch this odd creature pull one leg at a time slowly through its 

 jaws, nibbling it clean. A child can also see a little black dot on 

 top of its body, located between the second pair of legs, which is 

 apparently an eye! However, by examining it under a magnifying 

 lens, he will discover that this is a raised knob, with a tiny shining 

 black eye on either side of it! 



"Thousand-Leggers" 



Children often call these creatures "bugs" but they are 

 neither bugs nor insects of any kind. They are in the same major 

 grouping of the animal kingdom as insects, but each is recognized 

 as a separate class in this division. This is quickly indicated by 

 the fact that centipedes and millipedes have many pairs of legs 

 in contrast to the insects, which have three pairs of legs. 



More About "Thousand-Leggers": Centipedes and millipedes have 

 two main parts to their body structure: head and body. The 

 millipede has two pairs of walking legs to each body segment, 

 whereas the centipede has one pair to a segment. Their size and 

 number of legs vary according to species, but all species of milli- 

 pedes have so many legs that we frequently hear them called 

 ' ' thousand-leggers. ' ' 



We usually find millipedes in damp places, though they may 

 appear almost anywhere in a garden. They feed on vegetable 

 matter and they do not bite. If they are disturbed, they roll up 

 into a spiral. 



The centipedes are not so harmless. They have a pair of poison 

 fangs on the first segment of the flattened body. In northern 



