470 PROCEEDINGS: BOSTON SOCIETY NATURAL HISTORY. 
of a forest floor probably made the major portion of the animal’s 
food. Round or oval masses which appear like infusorian nuclei 
make up a large part of the intestinal contents. (The paper of Fol¬ 
som and Welles would suggest by analogy that some of these at least 
might be intestinal parasites.) If Seutigerella lives on the organisms 
(and perhaps on certain fungi) which it can secure from decaying 
leaves and other plant remains the fibrous material in its intestine 
would simply be that taken in incidentally while securing its regular 
food. 
A further indication of carnivorous habit is the sudden disappear¬ 
ance from a Petri dish containing other adults of the young individuals 
after the mother ceased guarding them, as reported by Williams (’ 06 ). 
The empty shells of young Bifidaria are found in great abundance 
among the leaves which are the habitat of Seutigerella and are always 
found cleaned very thoroughly, but the agency, of course, is in doubt. 
Certainly Seutigerella does not pursue its prey in the way Chilopods 
do. It is a most timid creature, fleeing instantly from other animals 
or from its own kind when informed either by the anal stylets or by 
the ever-moving antennae of a foreign presence. They are usually 
alone and rarely to be found in places accessible to other creatures. 
This is evidently a wise precaution as a small spider not so large as 
a Seutigerella, that was accidentally introduced into a collecting 
bottle, entangled and killed all the Scutigerellas in the bottle while 
they were being brought to the laboratory. 
I give the results of certain experiments with different sorts of 
surroundings which might influence the food supply. The animals 
were brought in late in the fall and kept under fairly uniform heat 
conditions. 
Table 1. 
Days 
Initial 
no. of 
animals 
1-5 
5-10 
10-15 
15-20 
20-25 
25-30 
30-35 
35-40 
40-45 
45-50 
Petri dish 
No. 1. 
Clean sand with sev¬ 
eral large lumps 
of decaying wood. 
12 
12 
12 
12 
10 
10 
8 
8 
3 
3 
3 
No. 2. 
Soil baked in oven. 
9 
8 
6 
4 
4 
3 
3 
3 
2 
none 
— 
i 
