CENTIPEDES AND MILLIPEDES. 



16: 



CENTIPEDES AND MILLIPEDES. 



Both centipedes and millipedes are long worm-like forms, with numer- 

 ous walking-feet, whence arises the name of the group — Myriapods (many- 

 footed). Centipedes and millipedes differ much in appearance. The 

 former have flattened bodies with but a single pair of feet to a segment of 

 the body, while the latter usually have cylindrical bodies, and the majority 

 of the segments bear two pairs of limbs. There are also many other dif- 

 ferences between the two groups ; but they need not 

 be mentioned, excepting the fact that the former are 

 carnivorous, while the millipedes feed largely on 

 dead and decaying vegetable matter. 



The typical centipedes — those large tropical 

 forms whose bite is so feared by travelers in the 

 tropics — hardly deserve the name, for it means hun- 

 dred-footed, and they fall far short of that number 

 of appendages. Some of the smaller forms, which 

 are very abundant, even in the northern states, ex- 

 ceed that number, and so the term stands. The 

 large tropical forms reach a considerable size, some- 

 times even a foot in length, while on either side of 

 the head is a large strong 'jaw,* in the tip of which is 

 the outlet of a poison-gland situated in the jaw itself. 

 The bite of these large forms is very severe, and may 

 be accompanied with serious consequences, yet it is 

 probable that these effects are frequently exagger- 

 ated. Thus one species found in the West Indies 

 bears the ominous name Scolopendra morsitans — 

 deadly. It is described by Brown, a traveler of the 

 last century, in the following words : " This insect is 

 reckoned very venomous ; the prongs of their forceps 

 are very strong, bending and pointed, which enable 

 them to bite very hard, and they probably emit some 

 venomous juice also. Some who have been bit bv 

 them informed me that the parts are very painful 

 for two or three hours, and turn frequently of a 

 livid color. I have seen them often kill a cockroach with a single nip." 



These large forms are very predaceous, and wander everywhere in 

 search of their insect prey. It is this that brings these unwelcome visitors 

 into the houses in the tropics, where they crawl through the thatch of the 



Fig. 151. — Centipede - 

 pendra morsitans] , half nat- 

 ural size. 



