STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
459 
FLATTENED CENTIPEDE. ITS LOCALITIES AND MODE OF INJURY. 
abroad in the night time, wandering about over the moist'surface of the 
earth in search of the nicest, daintiest food it can discover whilst the hours 
of darkness last; but when the morning arrives and the sun begins to dis¬ 
sipate the dampness of night and dry the top of the ground, it can no 
longer remain there. It accordingly travels around till it finds some crack 
in the ground or some crevice under a stone, a stick or a piece of board, 
where the sun’s drying rays will not penetrate and the earth will remain 
humid during the heat of the day. Into this crevice it enters and there 
remains until the dews of night are again beginning to fall, enabling it to 
leave its retreat. Thus, on raising up a chip Or fragment of board that 
happens to be lying anywhere in the garden, you will commonly find lurk¬ 
ing under it a dozen or it may be fifty of these worms—the young smallest 
ones being white, and the larger ones brown. And always in company 
with them will be observed some individuals of a different kind, having 
bodies more slender and perfectly cylindrical, which are the young of other 
species of this family of insects. When they chance to find a moist situa¬ 
tion where they have an abundant supply of food they probably remain 
there night and day, having no occasion to wander away until the store is 
exhausted And others of their kind discovering the same spot, join in 
company with them, until the place becomes thronged with as many of 
these worms as can crowd themselves into it. 
Next, we are most deeply interested in knowing on what these insects 
feed in the garden, that they are there assembled in such numbers. The 
remark of Latreille (Cuvier’s Animal Kingdom, American edition, vol. iii, 
p. 249) that “ these insects feed on dead and decomposed animal and vege¬ 
table matter,” has all along been impressed on my mind as being without 
doubt "the truth and the whole truth” on this subject, until the following 
evidence assured me that they feed on living healthy vegetation. And I 
since notice accounts in other authors, concurring with my own observa¬ 
tions. I make the following extract from my manuscript notes: 
‘‘August 24, 1864.—To-day on picking a cucumber around which the 
rains had washed the earth, burying it one-third under the surface, I find 
this buried underside to be literally covered with young flat-backed centi¬ 
pedes and a few round ones—the former mostly white, and of all sizes from 
an eighth to a half inch long. And I notice this underside of the cucum¬ 
ber has many clear, sweat-like, watery drops upon it, small and large; 
and on looking with a magnifying glass, it is perfectly plain to be seen 
, that the skin of the cucumber has been extensively eaten by these worms, 
in irregular patches of different sizes, from the surface of which wounds it 
is that the watery drops ooze out like sweat. Here is positive proof that 
these worms are not limited to decaying vegetation, but attack also that 
which is healthy and growing. There can be no doubt, therefore, but that 
they will attack any other soft, tender vegetable substance lying upon the 
ground or roots underground, where they can lurk in a moist situation adap¬ 
ted to their habits.” 
As every one knows, many of the cucumbers in every garden are stunted, 
knurly and deformed, with gummy spots upon them, their substance hard 
sad knotty, and their taste bitter. What causes them to be thus deformed 
