Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1892-03-10
THE aDEADLY oENrIpEDE."

am more than delighted TO ind that we
have in the Fort Worth GAZETTE a paper
willing and ever in line to explode old
superstitious follies, and show things
exactly as they are. Your explosion of the
widespread ''deYil's riding horse" nom
sense has been a grand work that must
ever tell for good. The dread with which
those harmless and useful insects have
been regarded heretofore has been some
thing amazing to contemplate now that we
know exactly what the insect is.
l notice in a late issue of your paper that
you have began going for the so-called
deadly centipede" If you you can burst up
the dread Of that insect as you have so
effectually bursted up all dread of the
devils riding-horse, you will have per-
formed work for Texas that will be worth
millions to the state. have spent several
summers at the North, where have found
Texas and" deadly centipede'' invariably
associated in the minds of the people. Not
a few people up there seem to think
the centlpede something entirely worse
than yellow fever. They appear to believe
that it is ready to pounce upon you at any
time, and that its sting is sure death, and
that, even should it crawl over you in
sleep, though without singing, your
chances for ever waking afterwards are
extremely slim. When you and Mr.. Bent
ley of the Illinois colony on Red river,
whose spine is to be defoliated because a
centipede bit him on the back, get into the
show business. please bring him around
our way and we will patronize your show.
ExPED.
Weatherford, Tex.
The deadly centipede, :" so called, is not
quite so harmless an animal as is '.ye devils
riding horse" yet there is no rubbing out
the fact that it has been most egregiously
slandered. We use the word ''animal' for
the reason that it is not an insect at all, but
"a Myriapod of science.
There are several species of Myriapods
or centipedes in Texas, but only one species
that will bite. None of the species are
capable of singing for the very good rea-
son that none have stings, and none of them
would produce more effect, were they to
merely crawl over you than would grass
hopper or cockroach.
The biting species of the centipede fam
lily is known to science as Scolopendria
heros, name applied to it by Girard. 1t is
venomous creature, and is therefore not
to be recommended as a household pet, but
really it is not near so bad as popular
opinion is ever ready to make it out. Nine
tenths of the fearful stories told about it
are simply untrue. It will bite, as already
intimated, and its bite is more or less
poisonous, but you must press or confne it
in some way to make it bite.
Being strictly nocturnal in its
habits, and abhoring light, one seldom
sees it unless he happens to turn it up
from beneath some close covering where it
is lying in concealment- The greatest dan
ger is to- men handling rails or pieces of
wood that have lain upon the ground for q
long time, particularly in damp place, for
it abhors dry localities about as much as
it abhors light, On this last account 1t
never comes into the house unless brought
tirely against is viii. Then, it is not at
all numerous in any section of Texas.
One may often handle old rails or wood
regularly through an entire season with
put seeing a single centipede.
The same centipede fScolopendria heros), |
exists in all the lower Southern states, even
IS far up as Tennessee-see American |
Vol. II, page 93S. We have
IS often found it in the coast country of |
aud Alabama as we have in |
Texas. 1t is small there and so attracts no |
particular attention, but here in Texas it,
ike all our well-fed things, grows to large
iize, hence our people see it, and, as the
negroes say, are ''skeered Of it." and, as
'esult, Texas gets the name Of being the /
exclusive home of ''the deadly centipede."
This biting species of centipede is a snuff
,olored animal from three inches long and |
me fourth Of an inch wide east Of the
Mississippi river to six inches long and half
IN inch wide in Texas. 1t is something put |
Up on the plan of creature that everybody
Inoys by the popular name Of Thousand
egged worm" The body of the animal is
divided into twenty-one joints or-segments,
Exclusive of the head, each joint bearing
sg on either side, giving it forty-two legs.
The legs have five joints each, and taper
apidly from the body to the extremities, Il
inishing up in kind Of claw. The legs on
he posterior joint or segment do not run |.
quare out from the body as do the others
'ut range back and turn in slightly 1s
nds, forming hooks. Upon its hesd1 has
pair of long. slender feelers, each divided
nto twenty-five joints, and also a pair Of
zen little forceps or pinchers, which come