322 GLEANINGS FROM NATURE. 



are typical examples of that great branch of the 

 animal kingdom known as arthropods, which com- 

 prises all insects and crustaceans. Each arthropod 

 has the body composed of rings placed end to end and 

 bearing jointed appendages, and in the myriapods 

 each ring and its appendages can be plainly seen ; 

 whereas in the higher forms of the branch many of 

 the rings are so combined as to be very difficult to 

 distinguish. 



Full forty kinds of myriapods occur in any area 

 comprising one hundred square miles in the eastern 

 United States. About twenty-five of them go by the 



general name of "thousand-legs'' or 

 Myriapods in m nii pe des, as each has from forty to 

 Winter. ., Pl ~ v i i ^ ^ ^ 



titty-five cylindrical rings in the body, 



and two pairs of legs to each ring. The other tit- 

 teen "belong to the "centipede" group, the body con- 

 sisting of about six- 

 teen flattened seg- 

 ments, or rings, each 

 Fig. 9i-Miiiipede or "Thousand Legs." bearing a single pair 



of legs. When disturbed, the "thousand-legs" gen- 

 erally coils up 'and remains motionless, shamming 

 death, or "playing possum," as it is popularly put, 

 as a means of defense; while the centipede scampers 

 hurriedly away and endeavors to hide beneath leaf, 

 chip, or other protecting object. 



All those found in the Northern States are perfectly 

 harmless, the true centipede, whose bite is reputed 

 much more venomous than it really is, being found 

 only in the South. True, some of the centipede group 

 can pinch rather sharply with their beetle-like Jaws; 



