24 



CHILOCHLOA CHILOGNATHA. 



needle, taking care not to occasion unnecessary pain 

 and to prevent the chigoe from breaking in the wound 

 The female slaves are often employed to extract 

 these pests, which they do with uncommon dexterity, 

 Tobacco ashes are put into the orifice, by which in a 

 short time the wound is healed. Here, however, as 

 in the attacks of most other tormenting insects, we 

 find that cleanliness is the best preservative, person 

 who take care to wash their feet often, being but little 

 subject to annoyance. It is likewise found that rub- 

 bing the feet over with bruised tobacco leaves is 

 a preventive against them. Great uncertainty pre- 

 vailed as to the real nature of this insect until Swartz 

 investigated its history, and published a short paper 

 upon it in the Stockholm Transactions, proving that 

 it belongs to the flea family. He has, however 

 represented it with a long porrected proboscis. 



CHILOCHLOA (Beauvois). This is a genus o: 

 grasses, formerly known and included under the genus 

 Phleum. They are mostly annuals, and of no value 

 as agricultural plants. 



CHILOGLOTTIS (R. Brown). A curious 

 tuberous rooted orchideous plant from New Holland 

 introduced into our collections about 1823. This is a 

 pretty hardy plant, and is usually kept in a frame, 

 planted in turfy moor-earth, or " in the open border 

 if care be taken to defend it from frost." Sweet. 



CHILOGNATHA (Latreille, MacLeay). An 

 order of wingless insects, corresponding with the 

 apterous genus lulus of Linnaeus, and distinguished 

 by having the body long, crustaceous, and often 

 cylindric, and the antennae seven jointed, and forming, 

 in the system of Latreille, one of the two families of 

 which the order Myriapoda is composed, the other 

 being formed of the Centipedes, Chilopoda, or the 

 Linnaean genus Scolojjcndra. These two groups have 

 many characters in common ; they are equally pos- 

 sessed of a very great number of legs ; the abdominal 

 are not distinguished from the thoracic segments, as 

 they are in true insects. The body, destitute of 

 wings, is composed of an extensive series of segments, 

 of equal size, and bearing, with the exception of the 

 anterior, two pairs of legs, as noticed in our article 

 on the Centipedes. The Myriapoda somewhat resem- 

 ble small serpents or nereides, having the legs fixed 

 close together throughout the whole length of the 

 body. The antennae are two in number; the eyes 

 are composed of an union of ocelli, and if, in some 

 species, these organs offer a faceted cornea, each of 

 the lenses is much larger and more distinct than in 

 the true reticulated eyes of insects ; the number of 

 the legs, as well as of the segments of the body, 

 increases with the age of the animal. These animals 

 live, and continue to increase in size for a much 

 greater period of time than insects; and, according 

 to M. Savi, two years are required before the organs 

 of generation become at all apparent. Hence we 

 may conclude, that they approach, in some respects, 

 to the Crustacea and Arac/mida, and in others to 

 the true insects ; but, from the consideration of the 

 presence, the form and the direction of the tracheae, 

 they must be considered rather as belonging to the 

 latter. Mr. MacLeay has united them with the 

 Anoplura (lice), Tkysanoura ^sugar lice, &c.), and 

 some apterous vermes into a class, to which he has 

 applied the term Ametabola. 



In addition to the characters first above mentioned 

 as distinguishing the Chilognatha, it may be mentioned 

 that the legs are very short, terminated by a single 



claw ; two short antennae ; the mandibles are crus- 

 taceous, without palpi, and three jointed ; but the 

 more distinguishing character of the Chilognatha is the 

 position of the sexual organs near the anterior part, 

 and not the extremity of the body ; those of the male 

 being placed behind the seventh pair of legs, and 

 those of the female behind those of the second pair. 

 These animals walk but slowly, and with an undulat- 

 ing motion, produced by the progressive action of the 

 numerous legs ; the majority of them, when disturbed, 

 roll themselves up into a ball. They feed upon 

 animal and vegetable substances in a state of decay, 

 and lay a very considerable number of eggs in the 

 earth. From these eggs the young are produced, at 

 first without any appendages to the body; eighteen 

 days afterwards, however (in the genus lulus, accord- 

 ing to M. Suvi of Bologna, who has made these 

 insects the subjects of two valuable memoirs), the 

 skin is cast, when they appear with twenty-two seg- 

 ments, and twenty-six pairs of legs, of which, the first 

 eighteen serve for locomotion ; at the second moulting 

 the animal has acquired thirty-six legs, and at the third 

 forty-three ; the body being then composed of thirty 

 segments ; and in the adult state, the male has thirty- 

 nine, and the female sixty- four. 



A very small species of this group attacks the 

 strawberry, another the endive, others are found in 

 moist places, under the bark of trees, &c. 



There are numerous species belonging to this order, 

 some of those from South America acquiring a large 

 size the lulus maximus being seven inches long. Of 

 the British species, Dr. Leach has given a very good 

 Monograph in the Zoological Miscellany. 



This order is divided by Latreille, in his last work, 

 into three families : 



1st. The Omsciformet, having the body of a 

 crustaceous texture and of an oval-oblong form, 

 without pencil-shaped appendages, and capable of 

 being contracted into a ball ; the under side of the 

 body being concave. The number of legs is thirty- 

 two in the males, and thirty-four in the females. 

 This family comprises but a single genus, Glomcris, 

 Latreille, the species of which are found under stones, 

 especially in mountainous and woody districts. This 

 group is highly interesting to the naturalist, from the 

 remarkable anology which it presents to certain 

 crustaceous animals, to which the name of wood lice 

 has been given. Indeed, so strong is the relationship, 

 not only in form, size, and general appearance, but 

 also in habits, that it is no wonder that, by the 

 majority of British naturalists, who have, in general, 

 cared too little for more than the outward appearance 

 of things, the Glomeris marginatus, belonging to the 

 ametabolous order Chilognatha, should have been 

 regarded as a mere variety of the Armadillo vulgaris, 

 aelonging to the crustaceous order Isopoda. We 

 :rust that better times are dawning on natural history, 

 as a science, in its legitimate sense, in this country. 

 For the purpose of comparison we have represented 

 the two animals above mentioned, from which it will be 

 seen how close is the proximity between the two groups. 

 2nd. The Anguiformes of Latreille, having the body 

 of a crustaceous texture, but of a long and narrow 

 brm, and unprovided with pencil-shaped appendages. 

 Here belong the genera lulus and Craspedosoma, 

 laving the eyes distinct, and Poludesmus in which 

 hey are obsolete. 



3rd, The Pcnicillata of Latreille, having the body 

 soft, oblong, and furnished behind with small pencil- 



