SNAKE millepedes; flattened millepede. 79 



may be upwards of eighty pairs.* They are stated to live two years 

 before they arrive at full growth and power of reproduction, and also 

 to propagate most freely in undisturbed ground. 



The Snake Millepedes have been found to feed on roots of many 

 vegetables, as Corn, Potatoes, Turnips, Onion, Cabbage, &c. ; the 

 Spotted Millepede is excessively partial to Mangolds; and the Flattened 

 Millepede is recorded as especially injuring Carrot crops. 



That both these kinds attack roots of Peas in the field, is shown by 

 the following communication, which was sent me on the 19th of May, 

 by Mr. "Wm. Luton, from Brooklyn Farm, Hambrook, near Bristol: — 

 " I have a piece of Peas that are dying away, and cannot tell the 

 cause ; but I find the roots are covered with a small insect, and I think 

 that must be the evil." 



Specimens of the infested Peas, and of the infestation itself, were 

 sent accompanying, and on examination this proved to be of both the 

 Spotted and the Flattened Millepede. 



But what we need most particularly to know is, — ivhere do these 

 Millepedes come from to the attacked crops? They are not true insects, 

 and cannot lly in any stage of their lives, so that they must either 

 have been bred on the spot, or been carried to it in manure or soil, or 

 have migrated to it ; no other way seems open, for it is hardly in the 

 compass of possibility that the eggs could have been carried in seed. 



From such notes as have occasionally been given in past years, 

 transmission in manure seems the most likely cause of infestation. 

 Millepedes are general feeders, and consume both decaying and living 

 animal and vegetable substances ; their habit of preying on Slugs, 

 Snails, insects. Earth-worms, and the like, would not bear on the present 

 subject ; but in kitchen-garden work they are found especially to be 

 present in refuse or rubbish heaps, and also in manure. 



On May 31st, Mr. A. E. Palmer, writing to me from Goldthorn 

 Hill, Wolverhampton, forwarded specimens of what turned out to be 

 the Spotted Millepede, asking information how to get rid of them, as 

 his Vine-borders were infested with them. 



Where manure from standing heaps, often in very much the condi- 

 tion in which it is found in thoroughly-dressed Vine-borders, is carried 

 out to fields, it might very likely take the Julus-worms, just as the 

 soil above-mentioned would have done. 



In the course of communication in 1883 with Mr. W. Glenny, of 



* John Curtis in liis 'Farm Insects,' -which contains the most serviceable 

 account of the common British Millepedes, and from which I quote above, mentions 

 having himself counted, as well as he could ascertain, 156 feet on the Julus pilosus ; 

 also that there were 160 on the J. lojulinensis ; and, sjaeaking of the Snake Mille- 

 pedes generally, that the number of legs which they possess amounts sometimes 

 to 240.— Ed. 



