414 THE MOUNTAIN. 



The Arachnides are repulsive creatures, but interesting to 

 the naturalist.* 



CLASS MYRIAPODA. 



This class of articulata is extensively distributed, and has 

 many representatives on the mountain. They are commonly 

 called centipedes and millipedes, or hundred and million 

 footed worms. The real number of feet is from " twelve to 

 upwards of three hundred pairs." The class contains two 

 orders : Chilognatha, (lip formed from jaws,) and Chilopoda, 

 (lip formed from feet,) the first order containing twenty-one, 

 and the latter sixteen genera. The first order contains six 

 families, Glomeridse, Polyxenidse, Polydesmidae, lulidae, 

 Polyzonidae, and Siphonophoridae. The genus lulus is the 

 type of the order, and is widely distributed, f The second 

 order includes four families, Scutigeridae, Lithobiida3, Scolo- 

 pendridae, and Geophilidae. Some of these are large and 

 poisonous, one being a foot long, but they are only found in 

 warm latitudes. The myriapoda are terrestrial, living in 

 dark, damp places, among moss, or under bark and stones, 

 some feeding upon animal food, and others upon fungi, fruits 

 or decaying vegetable matter. Some of the species are 

 luminous at night at certain seasons, and some secrete a 

 pungent, penetrating, and disagreeable material, with acid 

 scent, but with neither acid nor alkaline qualities. J 



CLASS IV. INSECTA. 



It has been asserted that more than one hundred thou- 

 sand species of insects exist. This fact suggests a range of 

 natural affinities that would appear endless, between this 

 class and the surrounding world, and reveals an order of 

 final causes that would seem infinite in its complexity. Are 



* For spiders of the United States, see Professor N. M. Hentz's 

 papers in the Boston Journal of Natural Sciences. 



f See Say, Journal of Academy of Natural Sciences, vol. ii., 1821. 

 J Heck, p. 130. 



