

A PPTL Te A. 
re 
SCOLOPENDRA MORSITANS. 
VENEMOUS, OR BITING CENTIPEDE. 
GENERIC CHARACTER. 
As many feet on each fide, as fegments of the body. Body deprefied. Antenne fetaceous. 
Palpi 2, jointed. 
SPECIFIC CHARACTER 
AND 
SYNONYMS. 
Feet 20 on each fide, eyes eight. 
Scoropenpra Morsitans: pedibus utrinque 20, oculis oto, Linn. Sy. Nat. 2. 1068. 5.—Fab. Ent. 
Syft. 2. 390. 6. | 
ScoLopeNDRA Morpanre,—Scolopendra pedibus utrinque 21, pofterioribus fpinofis. De Geer. Inf. 7. 
563. 1. tab. 43. fig. 1. 
Seba. Muf. 1. tab. 81. fig. 3,4. 
2. tab, 25. fig. 3,4. 
Cate/b. Car. 3. 2. tab. 2. 
Sulz, Hift. Inf. tab. 30. fig. 14. 
Bradl. Nat. tab, 25. fig. 4. 

Travellers agree that the temperate parts of Afia would be a terreftrial paradife, were it not for the 
multitude of troublefome infects and reptiles with which they are infefted. In a well cultivated country, 
like China, many of thefe creatures can fcarcely find fhelter ; but fuch as harbour in the walls or furniture 
of human dwellings are as abundant in that, as any other country that lies within or near the tropics. 
Amongft the latter, none produce more terrible effeéts than the Centipede, whofe poifon is as venemous 
as that of the fcorpion, which alfo is a native of China. 
Sir G. Staunton mentions a remarkable circumftance that occurred during the late embafly to China. 
The ambaffador and his fuite were accommodated in a temple near the fuburbs cf Tong-choo-foo. “ In 
fome of the apartments the priefts had fuffered fcorpions and {colopendras to harbour through neglect. 
Thefe noifome creatures were known only by defcription to fome of the gentlemen in the embafly, who 
had not vifited the fouthern parts of Europe: the fight of fuch, for the firft time, excited a degree of hor- 
ror in their minds; and it feemed to them to be a fufficient objection to the country, that it produced 
thefe animals.” Sir George however adds, that no accident happened in that inftance.—The fpecies of 
Scolopendra he alludes to, is probably Mor/itans, which is common in many parts of the world, but is par- 
ticularly found of a frightful fize, and in vaft abundance, in the two Indies. 
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