154 AMETABOLA. 



like brushes. The legs are twenty-four in number. The 

 genus Polyxenus Latreille, belongs to this family ; the type 

 of which is found in profusion beneath the bark of trees. 



ORDER II. — CHILOPODA (Latreille, Syngnatha Leach). 



This order, corresponding with the Linnaean genus Scolo- 

 pendra, is distinguished by having the body of a leathery-like 

 texture, and depressed, and the antennae composed of fourteen 

 or more joints. These insects are commonly termed Centi- 

 pedes, or Hundred-legs. Each segment of the body bears a 

 single pair of legs ; the last pair is turned backwards, and 

 lengthened into a pair of tails ; the mouth is provided with a 

 pair of strong curved jaws, furnished with a small appendage 

 in the form of a palpus, and exhibiting in the centre the ap- 

 pearance of a soldered connexion ; the lower lips are also 

 formed of two dilated basal portions, terminated by a strong 

 moveable claw, which is pierced at its extremity for the dis- 

 charge of a supposed venomous fliud. 



These animals have been considered venomous by all authors, 

 and especially by travellers, because their bite is attended by much 

 pain ; but although the bite of the large exotic centipedes is even 

 much more violent than that of the scorpion, it is not deadly. M. 

 "Worbe (in the Bulletin of the Philomatic Society of Paris, 1824) 

 has published some statements, which tend to prove that the bite 

 of the Scolopendra morsitans of Linnaeus (which is termed by the 

 inhabitants of the Antilles " le malfaisant," and " miUe pattes" 

 on the coast of Guinea) is dangerous, but it appears that by treat- 

 ing the wound \nih the application of ammonia, it is easily cured. 

 Amoreux, the author of a work upon poisonous insects, states, how- 

 ever, that the ordinary centipedes of France are not provided with 

 poison, although Leuwenhoeck, who examined the hooks of these 

 insects, observed near their tips an orifice communicating with a 

 cavity, which extends to the base of these organs. The exotic 

 species are of very large size, sometimes reaching a foot in length : 

 Dr. Martin Lister has indeed figured a species eighteen inches 

 long, and three quarters of an inch broad. In Europe, however, 

 few species exceed two or three inches in length. 



These insects, unhke the Jididce, ruu very quickly ; according to 



