2o6 



CENTIPEDES. 



Halmahira, one of the Moluccas. 



the family Lithobiidce, the eyes consist of a cluster of ocelli on each side of the 

 head, while in the other two there is only one pair of ocelli. Except in 

 Cermatobius, the coxae of the last five pairs of limbs are furnished with organs 

 known as the coxal pores, which are the apertures of special glands. 



The members of this order are found in all temperate and tropical regions, 

 living often in pairs under stones, logs of wood, etc. The species of Lithobius are 

 particularly abundant, and reach their largest size in the temperate parts of the 

 Northern Hemisphere. A few only have been recorded from India and Australia, 

 but none occur in Africa south of the Sahara, nor, with the single exception of a 

 possibly introduced species in South America. In the Southern Hemisphere the 

 genus is largely replaced by Henicops, which is represented in Europe and North 

 America by a single small species, but has many larger forms in South Africa, 

 Australia, New Zealand, and Chili. The single species of Cermatobius occurs in 



There are about half a dozen species of 

 Lithobius in the British Islands, one of 

 the commonest and largest being L. 

 forjicatus, represented in the figure. 

 Almost equally common and equally 

 large, although seldom found close to 

 houses, is L. variegatus, — a brightly- 

 coloured species with banded legs, — which 

 M? is confined to the British and Channel 

 ^ Islands. The largest known species is 

 the handsome L. fasciatus, measuring 2 

 inches in length, and occurring in many 

 of the southern countries of Europe. In 

 all cases the females — which may be recognised by the presence of a pair of dwarfed, 

 claw-tipped appendages behind the last pair of legs — lay their sticky eggs one 

 at a time, and roll them in the soil until they become coated with earth, and 

 consequently protected from observation. The young, like those of Scutigera, 

 are hatched from the egg with only seven pairs of legs, the remaining eight 

 pairs being added during growth. The food of these centipedes consist of worms, 

 insects, etc., which are killed by the poisonous bite of their destroyer. 



The second order, or Scolopendromorpha, contains the giants of the group, some 

 of the tropical species of Scolopendra reaching a length of almost 12 inches. The 

 legs vary in number from twenty-one to twenty-three pairs, and there are either 

 nineteen pairs of stigmata, as in the aberrant genus Plutonium from Italy, or 

 more usually nine or ten pairs situated upon the third, fifth, eighth (sometimes 

 also the seventh), tenth, and alternate segments of even number. The eyes are 

 either absent or consist of four ocelli on each side of the head, and the segments of 

 the antennae vary in number from seventeen to twenty-nine. The members of 

 this order are referable to four families, the Scolopendridce, Scolopocryptopidce, 

 Newportiidce, and Cryptopidce. Both the Scolopocryptopidce and Newportiidce 

 have twenty-three pairs of legs, but in the latter, which is confined to the South 

 American region, the legs of the last pair are clawless and have their terminal 

 segments many jointed and evidently functioning as antenna?, so that the 



COMMON ENGLISH CENTIPEDE (uat. size). 



