The nesting-habits of many spiders are very curious. The eggs are usually laid in a silken case, and the KUNNIXG-SPIDERS may often be seen with the egg-cases attached to the end of the body, as in the female cockroach. liable to The males of many spiders are much smaller than the females, and are very be devoured by their partners.

Among the most curious of the group are the SPINY SPIDERS, strange, horny, semicircular

Photo ly S. U. Benlley] [Sheffield.

GARDEN-SPIDER IN WEB.

A beautiful example of the structure of the web.

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creatures, studded with strong spines. They are allied to the Garden-spiders, but confined to the tropics. The SPOTTED SPIDER is a very beautiful species, often seen among cases of mixed insects, etc., sent from India. It is black, with brown abdomen and numerous yellow spots, and about 1| inch long; the body is much longer than broad, and the legs are about twice as long as the body.

Attempts have been made to turn spider-silk to commercial purposes, but the great difficulty is that spiders are so voracious and cannibalistic in their propensities that they cannot be kept in captivity, for they will kill and eat each other as long as there are any left, to the very last spider. The silk of some of the large tropical spiders is sometimes strong enough to cause a man much annoyance when riding through the woods, striking up against his face, and sometimes knocking off his hat.

The last section includes the MITES and TICKS, most of which are small or microscopic. The whole body forms one round or oval mass, with scattered hairs, and eight legs, though most mites have only six legs when young, while the PLANT- MITES have only four. The largest mites are those called TICKS. There are one or two small British species which are sometimes sufficiently troublesome; but in many warm countries they are a far more serious nuisance, lurking on the herbage, and fixing their proboscis in the skin of any passing man or animal, and retaining their hold till they are gorged with blood, and Photo by Higldey. allow themselves to drop SPANISH TARANTULA. off by their own weight. So called because the bite of an Italian species was supposed to produce a fit of melancholia, which could only be cured by the tune known as the " tarentella." Among the smaller mites some species are parasitic on warm-blooded animals, causing itch, mange, and other diseases; while many infest insects, especially humble-bees and dung-beetles. These are of considerable size for mites; and there are other bright scarlet species which are sometimes found on saw-flies, dragon-flies, etc. Many feed on decaying animal or vegetable matter, such as the CHEESE-MITE and the SUGAR-MITE, the former being a very familiar and interesting microscopic object; and others, again, are very destructive to plants, like the small scarlet mite known in greenhouses as the RED SPIDER.

Among the plant-feeding mites are the four-legged GALL-MITES, which produce galls or other excrescences on the plants which they infest.

Mites are probably almost as varied in their forms and habits and as interesting objects of study as insects or spiders; but the group is somewhat neglected by naturalists, owing to the small size of most of the species, and the consequent difficulty of collecting and preserving them.

CENTIPEDES AND MILLIPEDES.

These are creatures with long, worm-like bodies, composed of a number of rings or segments, each provided with one or two pairs of legs. They have one pair of antennae, like insects, but

Centipedes and Millipedes 679

they pass through no metamorphoses, nor do they moult. Instead of this, they begin their existence, on quitting the egg, without legs, or with only three pairs of legs, and continue to add to the number of their segments and legs until they have attained their full growth. They are called Centipedes, or Hundred-legs, and Millipedes, or Thousand-legs; but in the majority of species the number of legs is considerably below 100, though in some few it may exceed 300. The CENTIPEDES have only one pair of legs attached to each segment of the body, and are carnivorous, being armed with a pair of strong mandibles, which are perforated poison-fangs. The British species are all small and harmless, but the bite of the large tropical centipedes is more painful and almost as dangerous as that of a snake. Centipedes are long, broad, flattened creatures, with about twenty-one pairs of legs, and sometimes measure more is common inthan a foot in length. A reddish centipede, belonging to an allied family, England under stones and in loose mould. It has long antennae and fifteen pairs of legs, and feeds chiefly on worms. It is about an inch long.

Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S.] [Regent's Park.

GIANT CENTIPEDE.

Most centipedes have considerably fewer than a hundred legs.

The ELECTRIC CENTIPEDES are much longer and more slender than the others in proportion to their length, with rather short antenna?, and short and very numerous legs. They are of a white or yellow colour, and 2 or 3 inches long. All are nocturnal in their habits, and feed on decaying animal or vegetable matter, and are fond of ripe fruit. They emit a pale phosphorescence, visible in the dark along the track over which they have crawled. first MILLIPEDES are not venomous, and feed chiefly on soft vegetable matter. Except the three behind the head, which are provided with only one pair each, every segment bears two pairs instead of one pair of legs. The COMMON SNAKE-MILLIPEDE is about an inch and a half long, and is brown, with yellow rings and ninety-nine pairs of short white legs. It is nearly as destructive as the Wire-worms, which it resembles in its habits, and may often be seen clinging to a partly eaten potato. Millipedes are able to roll themselves up into a foot in length.spiral. Many foreign kinds grow to a much larger size, measuring nearly a They are more frequently sent to Europe from foreign countries than centipedes, probably because they are sluggish, harmless creatures which do not bite.

The members of one family of millipedes, called PILL-MILLIPEDES, are so similar to wood-lice

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in shape and appearance that they might easily be mistaken for them, and they exhibit the same habit of rolling themselves up into is not uncommon in a ball. One species England. A curious genus, generally placed in a distinct class by itself, includes a few species which may be called SLIMY MILLIPEDES. The species are found in widely separated parts of the world, chiefly in the most southern regions, such as South America, South Africa, or Australia, and New Zealand, though one two are known from Ceylon and the West Indies. They resemble slimy caterpillars, with conspicuous antennae, and from thirteen to is not dis- forty pairs of legs. The body tinctly divided into segments, and it exudes a very viscous slime, which acts like bird-lime in capturing the small insects which form at least a part of the food of these creatures, but which will not adhere to their own bodies. These creatures are found among decaying vegetable matter.

INJURIOUS CREATURES.

I are sometimes inclined to complain fhoto by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S.] [Regent's Park. We of our English climate, but we have cause GIANT MILLIPEDE. Shows the absence of jaws, which distinguishes these creatures from the to congratulate ourselves that it is far less predatory centipedes. prolific of noxious creatures than many others. We have no venomous scorpions or centipedes, and are not obliged to shake such intruders out of our boots before we can venture to put them on. Since the country has been so well drained, we are very little troubled with gnats, which breed in standing water, and are equally troublesome in cold countries like Lapland, and warm countries like South America. Nevertheless, several very troublesome creatures, not native to this country, have taken up their abode with us permanently, and more care should perhaps be exercised in preventing the possible introduction of others. Among the most troublesome of our household insects are bugs, cockroaches, and house-ants, all of which have been introduced from abroad. Among field- and garden-pests, the American Blight (which destroys our apple- and pear-trees) and the Hessian Fly are probably invaders from abroad; but the latter does not seem to have committed great ravages in this country. Among pests which have not succeeded in establishing themselves here, but which we should be specially on our guard against, are the White Ants, which are found as far north as Bordeaux, and are terribly destructive to woodwork, wherever they are met with; the Gypsy-moth, very destructive on the Continent and in North America, but extinct as a British species, perhaps because there is something inimical to its constitution in our climate; and the Colorado Potato-beetle, which is only kept out of Europe by incessant vigilance. But apart from actually injurious insects, it is remarkable how many species which are common everywhere on the Continent are either absent from Britain, or are only met with in very restricted localities. Let us hope that we may long enjoy our comparative immunity from noxious insects in Britain.

CHAPTER II.

INSECTS.

are easily distinguished from the other jointed animals by many salient characters. INSECTS They have one pair of antennae, two large compound eyes, composed of a great number of facets, and sometimes one, two, or three simple eyes placed on the crown or front of the head. In its adult condition an insect is composed of three different parts, which can be most readily noticed in a wasp. There is the head, with the antennae and mouth-parts; the thorax, to which one or two pairs of wings are attached above, and three pairs of legs called stigmata," in the sides of below; and the abdomen. Insects breathe through openings, " the thorax and abdomen. They never possess more than six legs in the perfect state, the abdominal legs present in caterpillars, etc., disappearing in the adult condition. They generally is called a " metamorphosis," four different stages of life, called respectively pass through what egg; larva or caterpillar; pupa, nymph, or chrysalis; and imago, or perfect insect.

Insects are divided into several large sections, of which the following seven are the most

: important, and many entomologists prefer to include all insects under them

Sheath-winged Insects, or Beetles; Straight-winged Insects, or Earwigs, Cockroaches, Soothsayers, Stick-insects, Crickets, Grasshoppers, and Locusts; Nerve-winged or Lace-winged Insects, or Dragon-flies and their relatives; Stinging Four-winged Insects, or Ants, Bees and Wasps, and their allies; Scale-winged Insects, or Butterflies and Moths; Half-winged Insects, or Bugs and Frog-hoppers; Two-winged Insects, or Flies. orders separately. We proceed to notice these

SHEATH-WINGED INSECTS, OR BEETLES.

BY THE REV. THEODORE WOOD, F.E.S.

BEETLES are distinguished from most other insects by the fact that the front wings are not employed in flight, but are modified into horny sheaths, which cover and protect the lower pair while not in use. This arrangement, however, is also found in the Earwigs as well as in the so-called " Black-beetle " and its allies, and it is to be noted that the wing-cases of beetles lie evenly side by side together when the wings are folded, while the folding of the wings themselves is transverse as well as longitudinal. The number of species is very great, upwards of 100,000 having already been described, of which about 3,400 have been taken in the British Islands,

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