766 



CENTIPEDES. 



ble, and do not come under the denomination of 

 spines, properly so called. The cheeks, legs, and 

 under parts of the body, are covered with whitish 

 hairs. 



2. THE SPINY TENREC (Centenus spinosus). This 

 is rather smaller than the first species. All the upper 

 part of the body is covered with spines, stiffer than 

 those of the former, but not so much so as the spines 

 of the hedgehog. These spines are white at their 

 bases, reddish-brown in the rest of their length, and 

 with black tips. The head, limbs, and under part of 

 the body, are covered with reddish-white hair. 



3. THE RADIATED OR VARIEGATED TENREC (Cen- 

 tenus semi-spinosus), is a much smaller species than 

 either of the former, being only about the size of a 

 mole, that is, about four or five inches in length. It 

 was at first supposed to be the young of one or other 

 of the species already mentioned: but it has since 

 been ascertained to be distinct. The spines in this 

 one are short and interspersed with hairs, and its 

 markings consist of three longitudinal bands of yel- 

 lowish-white upon a black ground. The spines on 

 the nape form a sort of crest, as in the bristly species. 

 The incisive and canine teeth of this species, are all 

 very slender and crooked. 



The whole of the species are quiet and inoffensive 

 animals, lurking in concealment, and generally found 

 not far from the water. The use of their bristly or 

 spinous covering is not very well known, but it pro- 

 bably protects them against carnivorous animals, to 

 whom creatures so covered would not be a very 

 agreeable mouthful. The predatory animals of that 

 part of the world are not however very formidable : 

 there are none of the more powerful cats even in 

 Madagascar ; and the leading beasts of prey are said 

 to be a species of leopard, and an animal resembling 

 the jackall. 



CENTIPEDES (Hundred-legs. SCOLOPENDRA, 

 Linnaeus). A group of annulose animals, forming 

 the order Myriapoda chilopoda, divided by Latreille, 

 Leach, &c. into several distinct genera, and distin- 

 guished from the Julus of Linnaeus (forming the 

 order Myriapoda chilognatha) by having the body 

 flattened, membranous, composed of numerous seg- 

 ments, each of which is covered by a coriaceous 

 plate, and bearing generally a single pair of legs, the 

 last pair is turned backwards and lengthened into a 

 pair of tails ; the antennae are more slender towards the 

 tips, and composed at least of fourteen joints; the 

 mouth is provided with a pair of strong curved jaws, 

 furnished with a small appendage in the form of a pal- 

 pus, and exhibiting in the centre the appearance of a 

 soldered connexion ; the lower lips are also formed 

 of two dilated basal portions, terminated by a strong 

 moveable claw, which is pierced at its extremity for 

 the discharge of a supposed venomous fluid. 



These animals have been considered venomous by 

 all authors, and especially by travellers, because their 

 bite is attended by much pain ; but although the bite 

 of the large exotic centipedes is even much more 

 violent than that of the scorpion, it is not deadly. 

 M. Worbe (in the Bulletin of the Philomathic Society 

 of Paris, 1824) has published some statements which 

 tend to prove that the bite of the Scolopendra mor- 

 ritans of Linnaeus (which is termed by the inhabitants 

 of the Antilles " le malfaisant," and " mille pattes," 

 on the coast of Guinea) is dangerous, but it appears 

 that by treating the wound with the application of 

 ammonia, it is easily cured. Amoroux, the author 



of a work upon poisonous insects, states, however, 

 that the ordinary centipedes of France are not pro- 

 vided with ' poison, although Leuvvenhoeck, who 

 examined the hooks of these insects, observed near 

 their tips an orifice communicating with a cavity, 

 which extends to the base of these organs. Be this 

 as it may, it is evident from the common occurrence 

 of these insects, which are met with every where, 

 hiding themselves under stones, the barks of trees, in 

 the ground, and especially in over-ripe fruit, creeping 

 also into every darkened situation, and even entering 

 beds, that they must become a very great nuisance in 

 warm countries, where they not only abound in a 

 greater degree than in more temperate climes, but 

 also attain an immense size, if we may credit the 

 account given by Ulloa, (quoted by Kirby and 

 Spence) who states that at Carthagena these animals 

 sometimes exceed a yard in length, and five inches 

 in breadth, the bite of which is mortal. This, how- 

 ever, is evidently a traveller's wonder, for notwith- 

 standing the more extended attention paid to exotic 

 entomology during the last quarter of a century, we 

 believe no species of this group have been received 

 in Europe exceeding a foot in length, although Dr. 

 Martin Lister, a more veracious author than the for- 

 mer, has figured a species eighteen inches long, and 

 three quarters of an inch broad. In Europe, however, 

 few species exceed two or three inches in length. 



These insects, unlike the Julidce, run very quickly ; 

 according to M. Veiss, quoted by Griffith, the Scolo- 

 pendra forcipata (belonging to Dr. Leach's genus 

 Lithobius}, when walking, successively moves its 

 numerous legs, one set of which are brought in con- 

 tact with the line of position, whilst the others are 

 raised up ; the latter are quickly put down to the 

 ground, and whilst the under pair of each division 

 (comprising two segments*) is raised. All these 

 various movements, which follow along the body 

 from the head to the hinder extremity, produce an 

 undulated motion. The insect varies its movements 

 and their degree of force, according to necessity, each 

 foot resting on the line in which it walks, and trans- 

 porting the body in the same way as do the muscles 

 of the snail, to the distance in which the limb can 

 act. These insects are also able to run backwards 

 with much agility, at which time they, however, make 



a, Lithobus forcipatus. b, Geophilus longicornis. 



use only of the two hind pairs of legs, which, when 

 walking forward, are dragged motionless after the 

 body. 



These animals have been considered to be univer- 



* The segments of the bodies rf insects have generally two 

 spiracles. If the bodies of the centipedes, especially those of 

 the large exotic species, be regarded in this point of view, in 

 which there are twenty-one pairs of legs, it will be observed, 

 that the spiracles are placed uoon alternate segments, -whence, 

 in comparison with the structure of the true insects, these seg- 

 ments must be considered as representing only semi-segments, 

 from whence it is evident that each entire segment is provided 

 with two pairs of legs, but with only one pair of breathing 

 holes, one pair of the former organs, at the tail, being super- 

 numerary. Mr. Mac Leay has followed up this theory of M. 

 Latreille, in his memoir upon the thorax of insects, published 

 in the Zoological Journal. 



