238 



THE AMERICAN 



SOUTHERN KOTES. 

 by j, pakish stellk, of tennessee. 



Scorpions and Tauaktui.as in Tennessee. — 

 A Canada Entomologist has wiitten to ask if we 

 Iiave scorpions and [Fig. isoo 



tarantulas in Ten- 

 nessee. Irepliedby 

 letter, but thinking 

 there may be others 

 who would like the 

 same kind of in- 

 formation, I have ^*='=.=c5?^ 

 concluded to say, 

 through the Ameri- 

 can Entomologist, 

 that we have. Wo 

 have two scorpions 

 in the highlands of 

 Tennessee : the 

 "Long-tail" (Scor- 

 pio [ Telegonusl 

 6ore««,Girard), and 

 the " Short -tail " 

 ( Buthus carolini- coior-BroMD. 



anus, Beauvois, Fig. 150). The sting of the 

 former is, of the two, the most venomous, 

 though neither is much to be dreaded. I would 

 about as lief be stung by one of our scorpions 

 as by a hornet. Length of body about one inch ; 

 color dirty greenish-yellow. The "Long-tail" 

 is a shade darker than the " Short-tail." Our 

 boys sometimes call them teetotallers, from the 

 fact that they cannot endure alcohol. A drop 

 of alcohol, or whisky, deposited upon one of 

 them will cause it to immediately commit sui- 

 cide by stinging itself to death. 



As yet I have found but one species of taran- 

 tula in Tennessee, the My gale Hentzii of Girard, 

 which you iigured on page 111 of your first 

 volume. Tarantulas are very rare in Tennesse, 

 owing, possibly, to the work of their deadly 

 enemy, the Digger "Wasp {Pompilus formosus, 

 Say), which is quite plentiful here. Both 

 scorpions and tarantulas increase in numbers 

 as one goes down towards the sea-board. 



Centipedes in Tennessee. — "If you wish to 

 see the old fellow himself just open that!" said 

 a friend the other morning, as he placed a small 

 paper parcel upon my office table. There was 

 no need of opening anytliing, however, for in 

 the next instant out from among the folds of the 

 paper, now freed from my friend's gi-ipe, ran " the 

 old fellow himself" in the person of a true Centi- 

 pede about four inches long — the Scoloiiendra 

 heros of Girard. One of my arms was resting 



upon the table at the time, and he made a sweep 

 towards it as fast as his forty-two legs could 

 cany him, having, doubtless, been favorably 

 impressed with the cavernous appearance of mj- 

 coat sleeve. I could discover notliing about him 

 to make a favorable impression, especially when 

 associating him with matters up my sleeve, con- 

 sequently I made a sweep also— back from the 

 table. And at all this my friend- laughed most 

 excessively. It was as good a thing as he 

 wanted — " a worm putting- an entomologist to 

 rout" — until I had impressed upon him what 

 the creature was, and assured him that its bite 

 was almost as venomous as that of a rattlesnake. 

 A sudden transit 



' ' From gaj' to grave, from lively to severe, ' ' 



took place as he thought of the danger liis fingers 

 had lately been in, making altogether as good a 

 thing as I wanted. 



The Centipede was soon captured and bottled 

 to the evident relief of my friend, who assured 

 me that he had often met with them before with- 

 <jut having the slightest suspicion as to their 

 true character. He had regarded them as some 

 kind of overgrown earwigs, and although he had 

 heard of a terrible animal in Texas called a Cen- 

 tipede, the thought had never occurred to him 

 that there was such a thing in Tennessee. Nor 

 was he more ignorant in that particular than 

 most of his neighbors: until I had found and 

 recognized the creature, I do not thinls: any of 

 our citizens were aware of the tact that Ave had 

 ceutixDedes among us. 



There are but few centipedes in Tennessee, 

 and I think this point may be put down as about 

 their northern limit. I found one ten miles above 

 Savannah last summer, the furthest uj5 that I 

 have ever met with one. They are quite common 

 in the Gulf States as we go down, however, 

 increasing in number and size the further we go. 

 Here they are small, four inches being about the 

 greatest length to wliich the)' attain, but in the 

 vicinity of Mobile I have found them over six 

 inches long. 



Nine-tenths of the stories told about centijDcdcs 

 are untrue. I do not regard them as being very 

 dangerous at all. They will bite, and the bite 

 is very poisonous, but you must confine or press 

 them in some Avay to make them do it. A cen- 

 tipede in one's clothes or as a bed-fellow might 

 not be just the thing to delight in, but there is 

 little danger of their getting into such positions, 

 for they abhor light or dry places. The greatest 

 danger is to men handling old rails or pieces of 

 wood that have lain upon the ground for a long- 

 time — they arc likol)' to turn them up -where 

 they are plentiful, and, without due caution, 



