NATURAL ENEMIES 83 



sects living in houses, such as house flies, small cock- 

 roaches, and clothes moths. Years ago the writer ob- 

 served its method of catching both Croton bugs and 

 house flies upon the wall of the kitchen of a house in 

 which he lived in Georgetown, D. C. It feeds and is 

 especially active at night, being seen in the daytime 

 usually only when disturbed. On this occasion, with 

 the late Dr. James Fletcher, the writer went to the 

 pantry in the evening and saw a good-sized specimen 

 of the Scutigera on the wall eating something. The 

 light was turned as low as was consistent with fairly 

 clear observation. The object held in its front legs 

 was seen to be a small Croton bug. It was eaten with 

 astonishing rapidity, but in the act of eating this speci- 

 men a house fly was observed by the centipede, close 

 to it, resting upon the wall. It instantly jumped, ap- 

 parently with all of its legs at once, and covered the 

 fly, which was thus confined as if it had been in a hen 

 coop. When the Croton bug was devoured, the pair 

 of legs opposite the fly seized it and passed it to the 

 pair of legs immediately in front, and in succession 

 it was passed up to the front legs, by which it was held 

 while being devoured. So it is obvious that its great 

 number of legs are of use, not only in walking, but 

 in the capture of its prey. The same operation was 

 repeated several times. 



The popular belief is that this little creature is very 

 poisonous, and indeed it belongs to the poisonous group 

 of centipedes. Very few cases are recorded, however, 

 of its having bitten a human being, and it is question- 



