164 SABITO. 



LUCIFUGOUS INSECTS. 



April ^^th. — Under a stone by the roadside at 

 Sabito Bottom, I found a Centipede performing the 

 duties of a mother. It was a blue species, about 

 three inches in length ; it was lying in the form of 

 a bow, the head and the tail curved forwards toward 

 each other, almost on its back, the curved body em- 

 bracing some ten or fifteen eggs, which slightly 

 cohered. The eggs are oval, about as large as hemp- 

 seed ; pale-yellowish, pellucid, and under a lens per- 

 fectly glossy, with a membranous integument. The 

 parent on being disturbed, darted away among the 

 stones, leaving the eggs, so that I did not capture 

 her. I brought home the eggs, and having taken 

 out a few for preservation, placed the rest carefully 

 on moist earth in a phial, hoping to rear them. 

 They soon, however, became covered with mould, 

 and decomposition destroyed them. The mother's 

 care is perhaps indispensable, as in the case of ants, 

 regulating the admission of heat and moisture to 

 them, according to circumstances. 



Scolopendridce of this size and under, are common 

 enough beneath stones ; but the larger species are very 

 rarely met with. Scorpions also, of two species, one 

 with slender claws (perhaps Tityus griseus of Koch), 

 the other with these organs much thickened (probably 

 an Atreus), are also common under stones ; they are 

 inert when uncovered, and almost helpless ; and are 

 not at all dreaded. * In the same situations is found 



* Respecting a curious organ peculiar to these animals, of which 



