CENTIPEDE, or CENTIPED (Lat. cc/di p-via, c• at apt da. from rent um, hundred pes, foot). Centipedes belong to the order Chilopoda, one of the two principal groups of the Myria pod a, and in some places are popularly known 'galley-worms.' They have fewer segments in the body than the Chilognatha, the millipedes, in which respect they more closely approach spiders and insects: a centipede, indeed, is like a primitive insect in stnieture. The form of the body is flattened, has more concentration headward than in the millipedes, and each seg ment hears one pair of legs. In counting the -c!nnents. the ventral surface should be observed, for the dor-al shields often overlap. The head, covered by a flat shield, bears a pair of long antenna., a pair of small, strong mandibles, and is pair of under jaws: and it contains poison glands, the venom being emitted through a pair of modified leg,.
11•thits and Ilabital.—Centipede: are active and ferocious. All are fond of dark and damp places, and stay by day antler stones and bark, in decaying wood ;Ind leaves, or in loose soil. They go in search 44 food by night, devouring worms, mollusks, and insects, which they are able to pursue with 11111(.11 persistence, guided almost wholly by the sense of touch, for their power• of vision arc at the best poorly developed. only one family. Sentigerida., has •6inpound eyes. In the other forms the eyes are simple or absent. According to Plateau, centipedes can distinguish light from dark, but, shire they are night prowl ers, the blind form, seem to get on as well as the others. As destroyers of insects, etc., cen
tipedes are, therefore, of practical importance to agriculture. The smaller forms seldom, if ever, bite man. and the poison is never fatal. The bite of the large tropical forms, however, is painful and serious. According to Humboldt, the children of South American Indians tear off the head and cat the remainder of the body.
Classification and Ilisto•y.—Four families are distinguished—namely, Sentigeridx, Lithobiida, Scolopendrid,e, and Geophilida•. To the Scuti gerida• belong long, stout myriapods, and the genus S•utigera is distinguished by its long legs, but is rare in the United States north of New York City. The hotly of the Litholdidp is unevenly jointed. The genus Lithobins is of world-wide distribution, Lithobins forlicatms in habiting both Europe and America. The Sco10 pendridte usually have four o•elli and from 17 to 20 jointed To the genus Seolo Lendra the large-jointed centipedes belong, such as the giant centipede adra yiyantra) of tropical America and the \Vest Indies. The Geopliilidie have from 30 to 200 segments. the typical genus ((ieophilus) inhabiting both Eu rope and America, under stones and decaying wood. One European species is phosphorescent. The centipedes appeared later in geological times than the millipedes. A Geophilus occurs in the Lower Carboniferous of Nova Scotia and the coal formations of Germany, and the order is well represented in Tertiary times. Compare .)IILLIPEDE ; and for bibliography, etc., see :1IYRIA