Haven't you sometimes found on a warm autumn morning that all the trees and bushes, and even the grass and low plants, are quite covered with threads of silk? The next time you see such a sight look carefully, and you will find that on every thread a little baby spider is sitting. Then you may be quite sure that all these little spiders set out early in the morning to seek their fortunes, and that, borne up by their slender threads, they have traveled for many long miles through the air.
Scorpions
These formidable creatures are closely related to the spiders. They are found in all warm countries, with the exception of New Zealand, and may easily be known by two facts. In the first place, in front of the legs they have a pair of great, strong claws, which look very much like those of a crab. And in the second place, the last five joints of the body are narrowed into a long, slender tail, at the end of which is a claw-like sting. When they attack an enemy, or seize a victim, they grasp it with the claws, turn the tail over the back, and force the sting into its body. And the poison which is introduced into the wound is so powerful that the sting of a large scorpion is almost as severe as the bite of an adder.
During the daytime scorpions hide away under stones and logs, or in crevices in the ground, or perhaps under the loose bark of dead trees. But very soon after sunset they come out from their retreats and prowl about all night long in search of insects; and it is at such times that they invade camps and houses, get into shoes, etc., and persons get stung unless they are very careful.
Centipedes and Millepedes
One can easily recognize centipedes by the great number of their feet. The name centipede, indeed, means hundred-footed. None of these creatures, however, have exactly a hundred limbs. Some only have fifteen pairs of legs; some have as many as one hundred and twenty-one pairs. But whether they be many or few, the number of pairs is always odd.
Another very curious fact about centipedes is that they have no less than four pairs of jaws. But the fourth pair take the form of fangs, which are very stout and strong, and very much curved, while at their base, just inside the head, is a little bag of poison. In the northern centipedes, which are quite small, the fangs are not large enough, nor the poison sufficiently strong, to cause a serious wound. But some of the tropical species, which grow to the length of nearly a foot, are quite as venomous as the largest scorpions.
The food of these creatures consists chiefly of worms and insects. But the larger ones will kill lizards, and even mice, and have been known to prey upon victims actually larger than themselves.
The eggs of centipedes are laid in little clusters on the ground in some dark, damp nook, and when they have all been deposited the mother centipede coils herself round them, and there remains guarding them until they hatch.
Millepedes, in some ways, are very much like centipedes; but they only have two pairs of jaws instead of four, and they are nearly all vegetable-feeders. The long, smooth, and slender Julus millepedes are plentiful in every garden. And in tropical countries they sometimes grow to a length of six inches. Even the largest, however, are perfectly harmless, for they have no poison-fangs as the centipedes have, and the only way in which they ever attempt to defend themselves is by pouring out a small drop or two of a fluid which smells rather nasty, and no doubt protects them from the attacks of birds.