File:Polydesmus complanatus (1898).jpg

Title: Animate creation : popular edition of "Our living world" : a natural history Identifier: animatecreationp61898wood Year: 1898 (1890s) Authors: Wood, J. G. (John George), 1827-1889; Holder, Joseph B. (Joseph Bassett), 1824-1888; Prang, Louis, 1824-1909, lithographer; Brehm, Alfred Edmund, 1829-1884; Wood, J. G. (John George), 1827-1889. Illustrated natural history; National Zoological Park (U. S. ), former owner. DSI Subjects: Zoology; Zoology Publisher: New York : Selmar Hess Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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Text Appearing Before Image: THE PENCIL-TAIL. 525 line traversing the middle of the under surface, and that when the creature is walking, their extremities do not project beyond the edges of the shelly covering. Like the armadillo-woodlouse, the Pill-millepede was formerly used in medicine, prob- ably because it looks somewhat like a pill, and may be found among the old stock of drug- gists' shops, mixed with the veritable ai'madillo. Both these beings feed on the same sub- stances, namely, decaying animal and vegetable matter. It seems to be rather a gregarious creature, as it is generally found in tolerable numbers in some favored locality. We now come to another genus, tenned Polydesmus. This term is composed of two Greek words, the former signifying "many," and the latter a "bundle," in allusion to the numerous groups of limbs arranged along the body. In all these creatures the body is covered with a hard skin, and the segments are liattened and lengthened at the sides. A handsome species, called Polydesmits splendidus, is found in India, and mostly attains the length of two inches. The color and general aspect of this species are rather striking. Inde- pendently of the very deep depression of the segments, which has a very strange effect, the color is bold and striking, being deep and very reddish-brown, diversified by an angular spot of bright yellow placed in the hinder angles of each segment. The body is smooth and slightly shining. When alarmed it is able to roll itself into a partial spiral, so as to present merely the hard shelly armor to the foe, and to shield the limbs within the coil. To a new species belonging to this genus, I propose to give the specific name "granu- latus," on account of the peculiar aj^pearance of the body, which is thickly covered with very minute raised tubercles of a white color, such tubercles being called granules in scientific nomenclature. Perhaps I can give a better notion of the idea expressed by the word "granu- lated," by mentioning that it could be rightly applied to such substances as shagreen. The general color of this species is rather dark drab, and it may be at once recognized by the peculiar form of the segments, which are flattened and elongated even more than usual in this genus, and are set at their extremities with three distinct teeth. The length of the speci- men from which this description is taken is rather more than three inches. A species of this genus {Poly- desmus comjylanafus), represented in the accompanying illustration, is found in Europe, and is not uncom- mon in gardens. It is about three- quarters of an inch in length, is very narrow, and has thirty-one pairs of feet. The genus is a very large one, and contains a great number of exotic

Text Appearing After Image: figure of the POLYDESMUS.—PoiytUsnius complanatus. species. The ing is magnified. Before passing to the next large family of myriapods, we may men- tion the pretty little Pencil-tail {Polyxenus lagurvs), a tiny creature which seldom attains a greater length than the twelfth of an inch. It is found under the bark of trees, in clefts of walls, and in moss, and may be known by the twelve pairs of feet, the bunches of little scales on the sides, and the white pencil at the end of the tail. The members of the curious family Julidfe are very like those wliich have just been described, but may be known from them by the fact that the edges of the segments are not flattened and lengthened, but are continued in an unbroken circle. They feed mostly on decaying vegetable matters, but have been seen to eat dead earth-worms and moUusks. They all exhale a peculiar and rather unpleasant odor, which is caused by a fluid secretion in certain little sacs along the sides, two on each ring. The little apertures through which this scented fluid exudes may be seen on examining the creatures closely, and by some of the earlier writers they were mistaken for spiracles, the sacs themselves being thought to be the

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