SLIME SLUGS, MYRIAPODS AND INSECTS 125 



pendra spp., have twenty-one to twenty-three body-rings, 



each \vith a pair of legs, and the antennae have seventeen to 



twenty joints. They live in warm regions, some growing to 



be as long as twelve inches or more. The "bite" or wound 



made by the poison claws is fatal to insects and other small 



animals, their prey, and painful or even dangerous to man. 



The popular notion that a centipede 



"stings" with all of its feet is falla- 



cious. It is recorded by Humboldt 



that centipedes are eaten by some of 



the South American Indians. The 



geophilids are very slender-bodied and 



usually rather long centipede-like 



forms with as many as 300 pairs of 



legs. They are usually yellowish and 



are common in damp places under 



stones or logs, or in the ground. 



Insects 



The great class Insecta, with its 

 350,000 known species, is a group of 

 animals of special importance in the 

 study of economic zoology. As we 

 know but few more than 500,000 

 different kinds of animals altogether, 

 it is apparent how dominant among 

 animals, as regards numbers at least, 

 the insects are. In fact we might 



well call this the Age of Man and , 



... . ., .., ,, ,. scolo pendra sp. (.Natural 



Insects, to contrast it with the earlier size ^ 



Age of Reptiles, Age of Fishes, Age 



of Invertebrates, etc. The insects include more kinds of 

 animals directly injurious to the material welfare of man 

 and to his health and duration of life than any other animal 

 group. So it is that as students of economic zoology we 

 must give insects, and their relations to man, a more detailed 

 consideration than we shall give any other animals. 



FIG - 49- A centipede 



