7660 Myriapods. 



a mouth, you never saw anything so horrible. It opens. its lips and 

 protrudes a tongue at first, but it becomes a proboscis-like thing when 

 out, and at the extremity it opens wide, great, pointed, hook-like nip- 

 pers fringed with teeth ; these close upon their prey, and then with- 

 draw deep within the gullet of the animal. 



Then, beneath this fierce creature, a dragon, in the form of Coro- 

 phium, — a creature with huge horns, as long or longer than itself; 

 these have the power to rend and tear and lacerate its enemy, and 

 withal strong ; they reach far and drag him down to earth. 



It is a frightful combat — that is, it would be, if the animals were 

 large enough to suggest terror. But is size necessary to be terrific ? 

 To the worm that is to be devoured the tiny amphipod, or the sharp 

 point of a fisherman's hook, is as fearful a thing as a huge mis-shapen 

 monster or a Sepoy's knife would be to us. I am glad I am not a 

 worm or anything so small, for certainly among the less of created 

 beings Nature puts on a more terrific feature than can be found 

 among the larger of her works ! 



There are other Crustacea that burrow ; the Chelura among 

 amphipods, and Limnoria among isopods, work their way into wood 

 fixed beneath the sea, where they excavate small tunnels, mining and 

 counter-mining each other, rapidly tearing away the timber in which 

 they work, to the destruction of many a stately pile and overthrow of 

 costly labour. 



The Chelura is an animal of comparative recent discovery. It was 

 first met with by Professor Phillippi at Trieste, and in this country 

 at Dublin, and described by Professor Allman, in the 'Annals of Na- 

 tural History' (vol. xix. pp. 367 — 8). It appears, from the size of the 

 excavation that it makes, to be much more destructive, individually, 

 than the Limnoria ; but the latter is so much more abundant and its 

 presence more general, that, in an economical point of view, as an 



evil, it is much more important. 



C. Spence Bate. 



(To be continued.) 



071 the Habits of a Chinese Myriapod. 

 By Arthur Adams, Esq., F.L.S. 



In many a sunshiny walk to the Bubbling Wells on the Pagoda 

 my only and nearly constant companions have been the Mina birds 

 and the poor worm whose peculiarities form the subject of this letter. 



