affecting the Turnips, Corn-crops, Sfc. 
231 
The Snake-millipedes seem to be both carnivorous and herbi- 
vorous, for they have been detected feeding upon small snails, as 
well as upon the pupa of a fly ; and they are believed to live also 
upon larvae, acari, earth-worms, &c. ; and there is such abundant 
evidence of their destroying the roots of many vegetables, being 
found clustered together in multitudes at the roots of corn, pota- 
toes, turnips, cabbages, &c., that there can be little doubt of their 
doing great mischief to many crops of the gardener, and appa- 
rently to the farmer also. In order to confirm this generally-re- 
ceived opinion, which appeared formerly to rest upon doubtful 
evidence, I shall enumerate the d fferent proofs which have come 
to my own knowledge * A garden at Ledbury, Herefordshire, 
was infested by Julus pulchelliis, which congregated in masses at 
the roots of the Brassica trihe. On pulling up some rotten cab- 
bage stalks in the beginning of March, I found the Julus pilosus 
amongst the roots ; they were then of a large size, and had, as well 
as I could ascertain, 156 feet, being thirty-nine pairs on eacli side. 
At the end of the same month Julus Londinensis was detected at 
the roots of wheat ; they were at that time an inch long, and Julus 
pulchellus was observed with them : these I buried at the roots of 
some potatoes and wheat, which I d'lg up in August, when the 
former were completely decayed, but the latter were not in the 
least injured; and I could not detect any of the snake-millipedes. 
I received some roots of the scarlet-bean from Ulswater, in West- 
moreland, which were eaten through and through by the Julus 
pulchellus and Polydesmus complanatus, which were still sticking 
in the holes formed by them in the cotyledons ; and the party vi^ho 
transmitted them stated that thousands of those species infested 
his garden, destroying the peas and kidney-beans also. Near 
Namptwich, in Cheshire, the Jidus latestriatus was in countless 
myriads in January last, destroying the potted plants in the green- 
houses, by eating the rind just at or under the surface of the soil; 
and cauliflowers and cabbage-plants shared the same fate in the 
garden : nearly at that period of the year the Julus Londinensis 
was doing great injury to the early potato crops near Chester. 
My friend Mr. W. VV. Saunders, who is too able a naturalist to be 
deceived, has ascertained that the Juli are very destructive in his 
garden at Wandsworth, where they devoured the young shoots of 
the heartsease just below the surface. I have more than once 
observed the snake-millipedes and Polydesmi in September in- 
festing the roots of onions, which had been attacked by the 
maggots of a fly; I and the Polydesmus injures the carrot crops 
* Latreille says "These insects (the millipedes) live upon substances 
both vegetable and animal, but dead and decomposed." — Vide Cuvier's 
Regne Animal, edition 1829, vol. iv. p. 333. 
t Called Anihomyia Cepartm, HoSmansegg ; vide Gardeners' Chronicle, 
v^ i. p. 396. 
