214 HABITS AND INSTINCTS OF ANIMALS. CHAP. VI. 



to kill and devour their own young, without pity, as 

 soon as they are born. 



(227.) The poison of the scorpion is lodged, as be- 

 fore observed, in its tail j but that of the centipede is 

 in its jaws. These are likewise among the pests of 

 tropical climates ; for, although several are found in 

 Europe, and even in Britain, from their small size, 

 they are harmless to us. Those of India and South 

 America, on the other hand, are enormous. Lister 

 mentions one which measured eighteen inches jn length. 

 Ulloa, usually considered one of the most veracious of 

 travellers, asserts (if his translator has not mistaken his 

 ' words) that some of the centipedes of Carthagena 

 sometimes exceed a yard in length, and five inches in 

 breadth ! The bite of this gigantic serpent insect, he 

 tells us, is mortal, as well it may "be : from its cylin- 

 drical body, Mr. Kirby supposes it to be an lulus ; but 

 it must be remembered that this latter genus is entirely 

 destitute of poisonous jaws. There is an African in- 

 sect, related to the scorpion (Solpuga Araneoides Fab. ; 

 Galeodes Oliv.), without a sting, whose bite is repre- 

 sented to be fatal both to man and beast ; and another 

 from the same continent, as its name implies (fatale), 

 may be supposed equally fatal. * In respect to the 

 celebrated tarantula spider of Italy, we strongly suspect 

 it has no real existence; for every spider, with the 

 common people in that country, is a tarantula. Whe- 

 ther there is any species really possessing poisonous 

 qualities, may be reasonably doubted ; for, during a long 

 residence in the Mediterranean, we never heard of a 

 single injury of this sort : nor could we get the country 

 people to show us any particular spider acknowledged 

 to be the true tarantula. Here we may terminate the 

 list of apterous insects deriving nourishment from 

 man, or inflicting upon his person decided injuries. 

 But among annulose animals, of which insects form 

 but a part, there are others which feed upon his juices, 

 and, taking up their habitation within his body, afflict 



* Int. to Ent. vol. i. p. 126. 



