This garden was made for the public, and is situated about a quarter of a mile from the old town of Larnaca. It has been suffered to fall into decay, and is now quite neglected. Mr. Mallock has described many beautiful scenes in his book, but I think he could have found few more beautiful than this old garden with its deserted gardener's house, now a heap of ruins, but overgrown with masses of luxuriant vegetation, with beautiful flowers peeping out here and there as if charitably endeavouring to hide the negligence of man, and to turn the desolation into a scene of beauty. I got several prizes in this garden, but found the Myriapods were principally represented by the species I have mentioned.
After leaving Larnaca I rode across the plain country through blazing heat, which was rapidly parching up the ground to a uniform brown colour. At every stopping-place I found the same species of Scolopendra and of Lithobius. After a few days I began to get up among the mountains of the northern range, and the burning heat of the treeless plain was gradually exchanged for the cool shade of the pine-trees and the fresh air of the mountains. As I ascended higher and higher the temperature grew cooler till I reached the top of Mount Troodos, the ancient Olympus. Here in the month of May the snow still lingered in white patches, and the air was clear and cold. I remained on the top of Troodos for a week, while I made a close examination of the fauna to be found there. I was much surprised to find the identical species of Scolopendra and Lithobius with which I had become acquainted in the heat of the low country, quite at home among the snow, and as common as in, what I should have imagined to be, the more congenial climate. Nor were they any the less lively. Far from exhibiting any sort of torpor from the cold, the first one which I triumphantly seized in my forceps wriggled himself loose and fastened on my finger with a vigour which made me as anxious to get rid of him as I had formerly been to secure him. However, he eventually went into my collecting box.
On the whole, we may say that the Chilopoda are most largely represented in the hotter climates, where they find a more abundant diet in the rich insect life of the tropical and semi-tropical countries. The more brightly-coloured Myriapods, too, are for the most part inhabitants of the warmer countries. The ease with which they are introduced into a country in the earth round plants, and in boxes of fruit, may account to a great extent for the wide distribution of the various species in different countries. Mr. Pocock, who examined the Myriapods brought back from the "Challenger" Expedition, informs us that of ten species brought from Bermuda, four had been introduced from the West Indies. There is no doubt that animals which can bear changes of temperature and deprivation of food, and even a short immersion in the water, are well calculated to be introduced into strange countries in many unexpected ways.
As might be expected from a class of animals so widely distributed, Myriapods show an almost infinite variety of size and colour. We find them so small that we can hardly see them with the naked eye, as in the case of the tiny Polyxenus, the Pauropidae, and the Scolopendrellidae. We also find them more than six inches in length, as the larger species of Scolopendridae. I am afraid we must dismiss as an exaggeration an account of Centipedes in Carthagena a yard in length, and more than six inches in breadth. The giver of this account—Ulloa—informs us that the bite of this gigantic serpent-like creature is mortal if a timely remedy be not applied. It is certainly extremely probable that the bite of a Centipede of this size would be fatal to any one. Some Centipedes are short and broad, and composed of few segments, as Glomeris; some are long and thin, with more than a hundred segments, as Geophilus. They may be beautifully coloured with brilliant streaks of colour, as in some of the Julidae or Polydesmidae, or may be of a dull and rusty iron colour, or quite black.
One of the strangest peculiarities found among Myriapods is that some of them (e.g. Geophilus electricus) are phosphorescent. As I was walking one summer evening near my home in Cambridgeshire I saw what I thought was a match burning. Looking more closely, I saw it move, and thinking it was a glow-worm I picked it up, and was surprised to find that it was a Geophilus shining with a brilliant phosphorescent light. I let it crawl over my hand, and it left a bright trail of light behind it, which lasted some time. I have been told that this species is common in Epping Forest; also in Cambridgeshire.[[11]]
Besides G. electricus, G. phosphoreus has been described as a luminous species by Linnaeus, on the authority of a Swedish sea captain, who asserted that it dropped from the air, shining like a glow-worm, upon his ship when he was sailing in the Indian Ocean a hundred miles from land.
What the use of this phosphorescence may be is not known with any degree of certainty. It may be either a defence against enemies, or else a means of attracting the two sexes to one another.
The places which the Myriapods select for their habitation vary as much as their colour and size, though, with a few exceptions, they chose dark and obscure places. A curious species of Myriapod is Pseudotremia cavernarum (Cope), which is found in certain caves in America. The peculiar life it leads in these caves seems to have a great influence on its colour, and also affects the development of its eyes. Mr. Packard's account of them is worth quoting: "Four specimens which I collected in Little Wyandotte cave were exactly the same size as those from Great Wyandotte cave. They were white tinged, dusky on the head and fore part of the body. The eyes are black and the eye-patch of the same size and shape, while the antennae are the same.
"Six specimens from Bradford cave, Ind. (which is a small grotto formed by a vertical fissure in the rock, and only 300 to 400 yards deep), showed more variation than those from the two Wyandotte caves. They are of the same size and form, but slightly longer and a little slenderer.... The antennae are much whiter than in those from the Wyandotte caves, and the head and body are paler, more bleached out than most of the Wyandotte specimens.... It thus appears that the body is most bleached and the eyes the most rudimentary in the Bradford cave, the smallest and most accessible, and in which consequently there is the most variation in surroundings, temperature, access of light and changed condition of air. Under such circumstances as these we should naturally expect the most variation."[[12]]
A strong contrast to these animals is afforded us by the Scutigeridae (Schizotarsia). They are unknown in this country, but abound in some of the Mediterranean countries and in parts of Africa. They remind one strongly of spiders, with their long legs and their peculiar way of running on stones and about the walls of houses.