Chilognaxua.- 
-INSECTS.- 
280 
-Jui.us. 
student afford materials of the highest interest. The 
Chilopoda are predaceous in their habits, and seize their 
prey with the foot-jaws, which, in fact, represent the 
mandibles in the majoiity of the Articiilata. 
In the family Scolopendra are found the giants of the 
order, S. gigas measuring from ten to thirteen inches in 
length ; it is of a reddish chestnut colour, and is truly a 
Fig. 181. 
ficolopendra gigas. 
most repulsive and formidable-looking creature. There 
are about forty species known of this genus alone; they 
inhabit India and the adjacent islands, Africa, and Ame- 
rica. It is in the hottest parts of the world they attain 
their largest size. S. gigas is found in South America. 
Cormocephalus lohidens has twenty-one segments, 
consequently forty-two legs. The Gonibregmatus Cu- 
mingi of Newport is 4| inches long, and has 161 pair 
of legs. In the genus Geophilus, one species, G. xan- 
ihiniis, is six inches long, of a narrow tape-like form, 
and of a reddish- 
yellow colour ; it 
is furnished with 
162 pair of legs. 
In G. Savignianus 
we have a species 
possessing the as- 
tonishing number 
of 210 pair of legs; 
this species is about three inches long. The species, at 
least some of them belonging to the genera Geophilus 
and Scolopendra, are at times brilliantly phosphoric. 
Oeder— CHILOGNATHA. 
The order Chilognatha forms the second division of 
the Myriapoda ; in these the body is crustaceous, 
and in many short and cylindrical; the antennae are 
more or less thickened at the tips; the legs are short 
and terminated by a claw; the mandibles are short, 
having the form of true mandibles, and adapted for eat- 
ing or comminuting vegetable matter, on which they 
subsist. Some of the species very closely approach the 
Annelida. In some species the first, and somtimes the 
second segment also, are the largest, and represent as 
it were a corselet or shield. Some of the anterior and 
also the apical segments are not furnished with feet. 
Many of the species have the power of rolling themselves 
up into a ball. They have from thirty-two to thirty- 
four legs in the Onisciform genus Glomeris, the species 
of which resemble the common wood-louse. 
In the genus Zephronia the antennm are six-jointed, 
clavate, and truncated at the apex ; the species are 
exotic, and are exactly like gigantic Ow/sci( Wood-lice); 
their prevailing colours are brown, chestnut, and clay 
colour; one species, Zephronia versicolor, is black, with 
beautiful irregular-shaped yellow mottlings. The largest 
known species measures 
nearly 2^ inches in length. 
The genus Polydcsmus 
contains a series of insects 
of an elongated form, the 
body being composed of a 
series of eighteen distinct 
segments, exclusive of the 
head. The segments are transverse, with the anterior 
lateral angles usually rounded ; the posterior being 
generally acute, sometimes hooked backwards. The 
largest known species is from Borneo, is inches long, 
and has the lateral margins of the segments denticulate. 
The genus Spirostreptus contains some of the giants 
of the order; it consists of numerous species. Fifteen 
are described in Newport’s monograph of the order. 
The species are principally from India, the Indian 
Archipelago, and Africa — one has been found in New 
Zealand, Spirostreptus antipodarum. 
The genus Julus is allied to the Centipedes, but has 
the body cylindrical ; the number of legs is very great, 
they have consequently been well named Millipedes. 
They can scarcely be said to run, but glide along much 
in the manner of a worm ; occasionally, on being dis- 
turbed, twisting themselves up into a spiral form. Their 
bodies are hard and not easily crushed, except by violent 
pressure or by a blow. They have denticulated jaws, 
and their eyes are divided by hexagonal convexities. 
One species of Julus is very common under vegetable 
refuse, and in banks of light earth, &c. ; it is of a shin- 
ing black colour, about 1^ inches long — this is the J. 
sahulosus. It is oviparous ; the young when first born 
have only three pair of legs, but as they increase in size 
they acquire additional numbers, not less than 100 pairs. 
The largest known species is the Spirostreptus fasciatus, 
which is eight inches in length ; Sgnrostreptus ohtusus 
(fig. 182) measures about 5§ inches. In the genus 
Polydesmus the eyes are obsolete. 
Monographs of the species comprising the orders 
Chilopoda and Chilognatha have been published in 
Leach’s “Zoological Miscellany,” and more recently by 
Mr. G. Newport, in the Annals and Magazine of 
Natural History, 1844. 
Fig. 182. 
^nT77T(TTT(T( P 
Spirostreptus obtusus. 
END OF INSECTS. 
