688 MYRIAPODA 



MYRIAPODA. 



IN accordance with the best systems of the present day, the MYRIAPODA are consid- 

 ered as a separate class. 



Some writers have placed them at the end of the insects, on account of certain struct- 

 ural resemblances with certain insects in the larval state. There is also a strong re- 

 semblance to the Annelida, or Ringed Worms, which will be placed next in order ; 

 and indeed, when we come to examine the lower forms of animal life, we find ourselves 

 quite bewildered with their many relationships, and uncertain as to their true position 

 in the scale of nature. Van der Hoeven, after reviewing some of the difficulties of 

 systematic zoologists, makes the following pertinent remarks : " Thus is the entire 

 animal kingdom a net everywhere connected, and every attempt to arrange animals in a 

 single ascending series must necessarily fail of effect." 



THE reader will remark that in the spiders the head and thorax are fused together 

 into a single mass, the abdomen remaining separate. In the Myriapoda the reverse of 

 this structure is seen, the head being perfectly distinct, while there is no outward mark 

 to distinguish between the thorax and abdomen. 



The Myriapoda are without even the rudiments of wings, and possess a great num- 

 ber of feet, not less than twelve pairs ; and in some species there are more than forty 

 pairs of legs. In allusion to their numerous feet, the Myriapoda are popularly called 

 Hundred-legs, and their scientific title is even bolder, signifying ten thousand feet. 

 To this class belong the well-known centipedes, so plentiful in our gardens, and the 

 equally well known millipedes, found under decaying wood and in similar localities. 



In England none of the Myriapods attain to great dimensions, but in hot countries, 

 and especially under the tropics, they become so large as to be positively formidable 

 as well as repulsive. Even the common centipede of the garden is by no means an 

 attractive being, and there are few persons who can handle one of those creatures with- 

 out some feeling of disgust. 



In all the Myriapoda the feet are terminated by a single claw. Some species are 

 totally blind, but those who possess visual organs have two masses or clusters of simple 

 eyes, their number being variable according to species or in the different stages of 

 development in the same individual. 



The first order of the Myriapoda, called by Mr. Newport the Chilopoda, may be 

 known by several characteristics. The head is broad and somewhat prominent, and the 

 segments of the body are unequal, each having a single pair of legs. The mandibles 

 are long, sickle-shaped, sharp, and prominent. The first tribe of the Chilopods has 

 antennae of great length, longer indeed than the body, very slender, and composed of 

 many joints. The tarsi are also many-jointed, unequal, and very long, as may be seen 

 by reference to the illustration. The eyes are prominent and rather globular. 



The family to which the NOBLE CERMATIA belongs is known by eight large bone-like 

 plates or shields upon the back, looking very like the ridge tiles on the roof of an out- 

 house. The members of the genus Cermatia, or Scutigera, as it is sometimes called, 

 are spread over the hotter parts of the world, and attain their greatest dimensions 

 under the tropics. Specimens of these strange beings are found in the South of 

 Europe, Madeira, many parts of Africa and Asia, Florida, New Holland, and Australia. 

 The eyes of the Cermatia are unlike those of the generality of Myriapoda, the ocelli be- 

 ing crowded together so that the facets assume a hexagonal form like those of the 

 insects and some of the Crustacea. 



All the Cermatiae are exceedingly active, running about on their long legs with an 

 action that reminds the observer of the common harvest-spider. Indeed, the whole 

 creature has very much the look of being composed of a number of harvest-spider's legs 



