674 



CHTLOPODA. 



The genus Bothropotys of Wood, differs in having small, 

 almost round punctiform excoriations arranged in three or 

 four series on the coxa. The B. multidentatus of Newport is 

 found in the Eastern United States, and is recognized by 

 having from thirty-two to thirty-seven ocelli on each side of 

 the head. 



SCOLOPENDRID^E Leach. The Centipede is the type of this 

 family. There are from twenty-one to twenty-three feet-bear- 

 ing segments, with few or no ocelli, while the last pair of feet 

 are thickened and generally spinous. This genus comprises 

 the most gigantic of all Myriapods, Scolopendra 

 giga.ntea Linn, from the East Indies, being nine 

 inches long. S. heros Girard is our largest 

 species, and is found in the Southern States. 

 The bite of the Centipede is dangerous ; the 

 poison is conveyed from two glands in the 

 throat, along a canal in the jaws. 



The genus Scolopocryptops differs in having 

 .no ocelli, and twenty- three feet-bearing seg- 

 ments, while the antennae are seventeen-jointed. 

 S. sexspinosa Say (Fig. 646) is common about 

 Philadelphia, and is found in Iowa ; it is deep 

 orange, with yellow, somewhat compressed feet, 

 with three spines on each of the last pair of 

 feet. Wood describes the manner of moulting 

 in this species. The skin had been crowded back 

 so as to cover only the last two or three rings. The cast skin 

 contains the skin of the head and all its appendages, even to 

 the maxillae and maxillary palpi. The anterior portion of the 

 skin was so torn as to show that the process of shedding proba- 

 bly began by the creature's withdrawing its head from its case, 

 and then thrusting it out between some of the anterior sterna, 

 completing the process by pushing the skin back with its legs, 

 jj; and aiding them by a peculiar wriggling motion. The exuvia 

 had most of the posterior segments entire, showing that the 

 occupant had been withdrawn from it like a hand from a glove." 

 Wood also states that the female guards her young by laying 

 on her side, and then coiling her body passes them along by a 



Fig. 646. 



