232 
Observations on the various Insects 
hy eating various labyrinths in the roots. The Juli are also found 
in pears, apples, &c., but I believe not in sound fruit. A few 
similar proofs the reader will have observed appended to the de- 
scriptions of the various species. These animals are also found in 
considerable numbers under the loose bark of decaying trees, in 
company with woodllce, earwigs, &c., also amongst the moss 
which clothes the base and holes in the trunks and stumps of 
trees, and likewise under stones in humid situations. 
The action of the Snake-millipedes is verv remarkable ; the 
horns are constantly moving when they walk, which is very lei- 
surely, yet they appear to glide along in a very peculiar manner, 
owing to the immense number of legs they possess, amounting 
sometimes to 240: these legs are very small, jointed, and terminate 
in a single claw, and are so thickly set in pairs, that when the 
animal is in motion they resemble a fringe of hairs, one pair 
moving after another in quick succession, yet with the most exact 
and beautiful regularity, causing an undulatory effect. They are 
able to jerk themselves about like a scotched snake, and when dis- 
turbed they coil themselves up spirally, the head forming the 
centre, and all the legs are then contracted and concealed, and in 
this position they appear to repose. 
These animals being longlived have ample means of doing mis- 
chief, if such be their nature, for they do not arrive at their full 
growth until the expiration of two years, when the organs of 
generation are developed, and during that period they change 
their skins, or rather horny coats, five times: in this respect they 
resemble the true wireworms, but there is a great difference in 
their economv ; for these, as we have shown, become beetles, and 
pass through four distinct stages or metamorphoses, namelv the 
egg, larva, pu])a, and beetle, whereas the Snake-millipetles, &c. 
are anim.ils which seem to be always in a caterpillar state, under- 
going a constant succession of growth, and increasing in bulk from 
their birth to their death, so that they arc active and feeding dur- 
ing the whole period of their lives, and do not, like the true wire- 
worms and other larvao of insects, ever change to anything else. 
The females lay their eggs from Christmas until the middle of 
spring, each depositing a great number in the earih : those of 
some species are round, whilst others are stated to be oval and of 
a dirty or yellowish white colour. A few of these animals, how- 
ever, may be said to undergo certain degrees of perfection as they 
increase in stature, for they are very dissimilar in their infancy to 
their })arents, having very few legs when they are first hatched,* 
at which period the young of Jnlus snhii/osiis have only three pairs, 
and seven or eight abdominal segments alone, but in four days they 
acquire four pair more with additional rings. The number of 
segments thus increasing with the age of the animals, renders a 
* DeGeer's Md-moires, vo). vii. p. 583, pl.3G, f. 20. 21, and 22. 
