OF SCOLOPENDRA. 133 



probable that future observations will furnish us 

 with others. The S. electrica of Linnaeus is not 

 uncommon in England, Belgium, France, etc. 

 Its light is seldom seen, in consequence of its ha- 

 bit of living in holes in the soil ; but it is some- 

 times to be met with in outhouses or crawling 

 along some secluded pathway, leaving a track of 

 phosphoric matter behind. It is about an inch 

 and a half long, its diameter being scarcely more 

 than one-tenth of an inch ; its colour is a dusky 

 brown, and its legs, which are one hundred and 

 forty in number (seventy upon each side of the 

 animal's body), are of a yellowish hue.* 



We know very little of 8. plwsphorea, which 

 appears to be a native of Asia. 



Some authors state that 8. electrica is only 

 phosphorescent when in motion, and that its light 

 cannot be discerned when the creature is at. rest ; 

 it is particularly brilliant, however, when the ani- 

 mal is disturbed or irritated. f 



Macartney has made some extremely curious 

 observations on the phosphoric properties of our 

 English Scolopendra. It results from his re- 

 searches that the 8. electrica is capable of secret- 

 ing a luminous fluid (like the little Crustacea ob- 

 served by Edoux and Soulezet, as I have already 



* I have already alluded to the yellow colour as being appa- 

 rently so intimately connected with phosphoric phenomena, 

 f We have seen that this is the case with Noctiluca. 



