CHAPTER VI 

 CENTIPEDES AND MILLIPEDES 



THESE animals are found in a great variety of situations, in 

 the earth, among heaps of vegetable refuse, beneath the bark of 

 decaying and dead trees, among the roots of grasses and other 

 plants, and under stones and logs, some even occurring under 

 rocks on the seashore below high-water mark. There are at 

 least some fifty or sixty different species to be found in England, 

 and probably more, for comparatively little attention has been 

 bestowed upon them by collectors. The term " Myriapod " is 

 employed to include both centipedes and millipedes, but none 

 of these words should be understood too literally to indicate 

 the number of legs present in these animals. 



Like insects and spiders, the myriapods possess a hard external 

 skeleton and jointed limbs, and they breathe (with the exception 

 of one subgroup) by means of tracheal tubes which open on the 

 lateral surface of the numerous segments into which the body 

 is divided. They differ, however, from both the other groups 

 in having true jointed legs upon the posterior segments, and 

 in the far greater number of legs ; from the insects, in exhibiting 

 no distinction between thorax and abdomen ; from the spiders, 

 in possessing antennae and clearly marked segmentation extending 

 right to the end of the body. 



The centipedes have a rather flattened body ; each segment 

 carries only one pair of legs ; the bases of the legs are wide apart ; 

 the reproductive opening is on the last segment of the body, 

 and the antennae possess at least fourteen joints. The majority 

 are swift running, ferocious, carnivorous creatures, feeding on 

 worms, flies, beetle-grubs, etc., which they seize and slay with 

 their sharp and poison-bearing mandibles. 



At least one species (Geophilus electricus) has the peculiarity of 

 being phosphorescent, at any rate in the autumn. This centipede 



