Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1901-12-11
MANY LEGGED CRAWLERS.
hultitude of Little Creatures That
Live Under the Pebbles and
Rocks of Field and Wood.

In any pasture or other uncultiva ted
piece of ground, or by the roadside,
says writer in ST. Nicholas, you may
find many pretty buried stones, from
small pebbles up to powders many
times larger than a man can lift.
No one who has not explored would
guess how much of the life of the
fields and woods goes on under the
stones. Here a multitude of little
creatureS-snakes, nevis, Snails, and
many insects-live all the year round,
or take refuge from their enemies or
from the cold. Besides this, these
rocks form the doors which you can
open, and then you can catch glimpses
of the life of the underground world
which goes on everywhere beneath the
surface of the soil.
If you turn over one of these stones
quickly you sometimes find nothing at
all; often an ants nest, occasionally a
colony of snails, or sometimes a tiny
snake coiled in ball like a marble.
Once in awhile you find glossy red
brown creature about an inch long.
This little fellow seems to be mostly
legs, and he scampers and wriggles
away SO quickly that it is almost i'm
possible to seize him before he disap-
pears down some minute hole. He is
often called an earwig, but Incorrect
ly; he is really centipede, which, as
young students of Latin already know,
means "hundred-legs." But this fellow
is only second cousin of the foot-long
centipede of hot countries, whose bite
is as painful and dangerous as that of
a scorpion. This little centipede, how
ever (Lithobius, the naturalists call
him), is perfectly safe to handle, for
though formidable enough to the crea-
lures of his own size, he cannot bite
through the human skin You see how
quick he is, and can ina CINE how fierce
and terrible he must seem to the slug
gish worms and insect larvae on which
he feeds. In spite of his name he
doesn't really have hundred legs. but
only 10 pairs, jointed like an insects:
and, like all centipedes, he has only
one par to each segment, as the parts
OF the body between the joints are
called. Besides his 80 legs he has
pair of big poison claws, which he
carries folded forward, one on each
side of his head. His prey he kills with
these claws, their wound being instant
" fatal to small animals.
Very unlike the fierce and active
ccntipede is another creature about as
long, but with slender. round, dark
body and very short legs. Some young
folks call this worm; but he is not
a worm at all, but a millipede, or 'thou-
sand-legs," and is called julius by nat
uralists. Actually he does not have
1000 legs. but only about 100; and, I'M
like the centipedes. he has two pairs
or legs on every segment except the
hrst three. Unlike the centipede, too,
he has no poison claws, and is not ven
omous; he is timid, gentle crea-
ture that crawls about slowly, in
spite OF his numerous legs. He is,
however. somewhat injurious to vege-
tation, because he bites off the roots
OF plants for food: but for the most
part he feeds on decayng vegetation.
II you brighten him he will coil up
quickly; but if you handle him gently
he Will crawl over your ha%ds. touch
ing his short antenHae. first one and
then the other, to the surface in front
OF him, like a blind man tapping the
ground with his stick AS he crawls
along, it is interesting to watch the
curious wave which, starting behind.
runs forward along the fence of legs
on each side