Order 4. Lithobiomorpha. Chilopoda with fifteen pairs of leg-bearing somites differentiated into larger and smaller, the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 8th, 10th, 12th and 14th being large, the others small. Spiracles present upon all the larger with the exception sometimes of the 1st. The toxicognaths are relatively weaker than in the orders hitherto considered, and have their basal segments less firmly fused mesially. In correlation with their weaker muscularity the first leg-bearing segment is relatively small. The gonopods, present and usually jointed in both sexes, are especially well developed and forcipate in the female, and arise from a large ventral plate resulting from the fusion of their coxae with the sternum of the genital somite. The antennae are many-jointed, and there is a single ocellus or a cluster of ocelli on each side of the head. The coxae of the legs are large, and those of the last four or five pairs usually contain glands opening by large orifices. The newly-hatched young has only seven pairs of legs, the remaining pairs being successively added as growth proceeds.
The genera of this order are divisible into three families, the Lithobiidae (Lithobius, Bothropolys), Henicopidae (Henicops, Haasiella), the Cermatobiidae (Cermatobius). Cermatobius, based upon a single species, martensii, from the isl. of Adenara, is of peculiar interest, since in the absence of coxal pores, and the length and multi-articulation of the antennae and tarsal segments, it approaches more nearly to Scutigera than does any other pleurostigmous Chilopod. It is also stated that the spiracles have assumed a more dorsal position, thus foreshadowing the completely dorsal situation they have taken up in the Notostigma. The Henicopidae, containing centipedes of small size, attains its maximum of development in the southern continents and islands, more particularly Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and South America. One genus (Lamyctes) however, occurs in Europe. The Lithobiidae, on the contrary, are almost exclusively northern in range, being particularly abundant and of large size individually in Europe, extra-tropical Asia, and North and Central America. In habits the Lithobiidae closely resemble the Scolopendridae. They are, however, comparatively far more agile with their shorter, more compact bodies and stronger legs. They are mostly of small size, the largest species, Lithobius fusciatus, of south Europe measuring only 2 in. in length of body. The females do not guard their eggs, but coat them with soil and leave them to their fate.
| Fig. 9.—A, Scutigera rubrolineata (after Buffon). B, Tergum and part of a second of the same enlarged to show the position of the stigmata o, o; p, hinder margin of tergum. |
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After Latzel, Die Myr öst-ung. Mon. vol. i.
“Chilopoda,” Vienna, 1880. Fig. 10.—Gnathites of Scutigera. I. Mandibles. II. Maxillae. III. Palpognaths. IV. Toxicognaths. |
Subclass 2, Notostigma.—Chilopods with a series of median dorsal tracheal sacs furnished with tubes dipping into the pericardial blood space, and opening each by an unpaired spiracle upon the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 8th, 10th, 12th and 14th leg-bearing somites. This characteristic is accompanied by the complete disappearance of the tergum of the 7th, either by fusion with that of the 8th or by excalation, and by the evanescence of the terga of the 2nd, 4th, 6th, 9th, 11th and 13th pedigerous somites. The preantennal area of the head is not strongly reflexed inferiorly, and the eyes are large and compound. The maxillae are long and have a sensory organ, the palpognaths are long, spiny and composed of five segments, like the primitive Chilopod leg, and the toxicognaths have their basal segments disunited and independently movable. Gonopods duplicated in the male.
This subclass contains the single order Scutigeromorpha and the family Scutigeridae. As in the Lithobiomorpha there are fifteen pairs of legs, the gonopods are well developed in both sexes and the young is hatched with only seven pairs of legs. The legs and antennae in the adult are extremely long and many jointed. In habits as well as in structure the Scutigeridae, of which Scutigera is the best-known genus, differ greatly from other centipedes. Although they hide under stones and logs of wood like Lithobius, they are not lucifugous but diurnal, and may be seen chasing their foes in the blazing sun. They run with astonishing speed and have the power of dropping their legs when seized. South of about the 40th parallel of north latitude they are universally distributed in suitable localities. In most species the body only reaches a length of about 1 in.; but twice that size or more is reached by examples of the Indian species Scutigera longicornis.
Some fossils of Carboniferous age have been described as Chilopoda by Scudder, who refers them to two families, Gerascutigeridae and Eoscolopendridae. But until the specimens have been examined by zoologists the genera they are alleged to represent cannot be taken seriously into consideration. Remains of centipedes closely related to existing forms have been recorded from Oligocene beds.
(R. I. P.)
CENTLIVRE, SUSANNA (c. 1667-1723), English dramatic writer and actress, was born about 1667, probably in Ireland, whither her father, a Lincolnshire gentleman named Freeman, had been forced to flee at the Restoration on account of his political sympathies. When sixteen she married the nephew of Sir Stephen Fox, and on his death within a year she married an officer named Carroll, who was killed in a duel. Left in poverty, she began to support herself, writing for the stage, and some of her early plays are signed S. Carroll. In 1706 she married Joseph Centlivre, chief cook to Queen Anne, who survived her. Her first play was a tragedy, The Perjured Husband (1700), and she herself appeared for the first time at Bath in her comedy Love at a Venture (1706). Among her most successful comedies are—The Gamester (1705); The Busy Body (1709); A Bold Stroke for a Wife (1718); The Basset-table (1706); and The Wonder! a Woman keeps a Secret (1714), in which, as the jealous husband, Garrick found one of his best parts. Her plots, verging on the farcical, were always ingenious and amusing, though coarse after the fashion of the time, and the dialogue fluent. She never seems to have acted in London, but she was a friend of Rowe, Farquhar and Steele. Mrs Centlivre died on the 1st of December 1723. Her dramatic works were published, with a biography, in 1761 (reprinted 1872).