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The shape of the body is short, thick, and very compact. The
composition of the individual segments resembles that found in
Chilopoda rather than that of Chilognatha.
The antennae are very long, longer than in any of the Chilopods, and
are composed of a great number of very small joints. The mouth
parts show a greater length and slenderness than do those of the
other Orders mentioned as yet. They consist of—
1. An upper lip partly free, but fused at the sides with the rest of the head. The
upper lip is in three parts, as in the Chilopoda, but with the middle part very small
and the lateral pieces large.
2. A pair of jaws or mandibles. These are provided not only with teeth, as in the
other Myriapods, but also with a sort of comb of stiff bristles.
3 and 4. Two pairs of maxillae or foot jaws distinguished by their length and
slenderness.
5. The poison claws long, slender, and not sharply curved. The bases of the
poison claws hardly fused together and short.
The digestive tube resembles that of the Chilopoda. The legs are
very long and slender, and the joints are beset with bristles. Both
sexes have small hook-like appendages at the sides of the genital
openings.
We next come to one of the last two Orders which have been
recently added to the Myriapoda. These little animals have a great
resemblance to the Thysanura among the Insects, and especially to
Campodea among the Thysanura. It will be well, therefore, to begin
our account with a few of the reasons which have induced naturalists
to include them among the Myriapods rather than among the
Thysanura.
1. Campodea has three pairs of mouth appendages, while Scolopendrella has only
two.
2. Scolopendrella has broad plates covering the back, not only on the anterior
(thoracic) segments, but on the whole body.
5. Campodea breathes by means of three stigmata in the anterior part of the body.
The stigmata of Scolopendrella are hard to see, and are not in the same position.
6. Scolopendrella has twelve pairs of legs, and Campodea, like all Insects, has
only three.
The antennae are long, and are composed of many joints of equal
size.
1. An upper lip.
2. A pair of mandibles.
3. A pair of maxillae.
The segments are not all of equal size. Some are larger than others.
The larger and smaller segments are arranged alternately, and the
smaller do not bear legs. As before stated, there are twelve leg-
bearing segments.
At the end of the body there are two hook-like appendages which are
pierced by a canal, through which is poured the secretion of a pair of
glands. Near the sides of these appendages are a pair of sense
organs, consisting of long hairs connected with nerves.
The digestive canal is a long straight tube passing through the length
of the body. In the middle it is much enlarged, so as to form a
stomach with a glandular coat. Posterior to the stomach the digestive
tube receives the contents of two Malpighian tubes which act as
kidneys.
Order V. Pauropoda.
The Pauropoda, which form the fifth Order of Myriapods, are as yet
very imperfectly known. Pauropus was discovered by Sir John
Lubbock, and its discovery was announced by him in 1866. He found
this little Centipede in his kitchen garden among some Thysanura,
and at first considered it as a larval form, but continued observation
showed that it was a mature creature. He described it as a small,
white, bustling, intelligent little creature about 1⁄25 inch in length.
The antennae are very curious and highly characteristic of the Order.
They resemble those of Crustacea rather than those of Myriapoda.
Each antenna is composed in the following manner. First there is a
shaft of four joints. From the fourth joint of this shaft spring two
branches; one of these two branches is narrower than the other, and
ends in a long thin bristle composed of a great number of joints. The
other and broader branch bears two such bristles, and between them
a small pear-shaped or globular body, the function of which is
unknown.
The mouth parts consist of two minute pairs of appendages, the
anterior pair toothed and the posterior pointed. The body is rather
narrower in front; the segment behind the head has one pair of legs,
the second, third, fourth, and fifth behind the head two each. The
posterior legs are the longest; the genital organs open at the base of
the second pair of legs, between these and the third pair. The
manner of breathing is as yet unknown, tracheae not having been
discovered.
Pauropus at first looks most like a Chilopod, but differs from that
Order—
2. In the absence of poison claws and in the form of the mouth parts.
3. The opening of the generative organs being in the front part of the body.
1. The legs are not of equal length, the posterior legs being the longest, as in
Chilopods.
2. The mouth parts differ from those of Chilognaths almost as much as from those
of Chilopods.
Embryology.
Like all living creatures with which we are acquainted, the starting-
point of Myriapod life is the ovum, as it is called. This ovum is a cell
resembling the cells of which the body of all living animals are built
up, and which may be compared to the bricks of which a building is
composed. This cell or ovum is a small sphere of living transparent
substance called protoplasm, and it is nucleated—that is, it contains
a small spot of denser protoplasm called the nucleus, and within that
a still smaller spot of still more dense protoplasm called the
nucleolus. In the process of impregnation the ovum unites with the
male cell, and the cell so formed is called the impregnated ovum.
This ovum has the property of dividing into two cells, each
resembling the parent cell from which it is derived; each of these
cells has, like the parent cell, the same property of dividing into two
more, and so on. Thus from this continual process of division or
reproduction of every living cell, the materials are provided for the
building up of the body.
Fig. 37.—Later stage: nu, nucleolus; c.p, nucleus; y.sp, yolk spherules;
ch, shell.
I will now go back a little and describe what happens to the ovum
before the process of segmentation is complete. It increases in size
and forms the supply of food yolk which is to provide the nutriment of
the ovum. Then after impregnation the egg-shell is formed round it,
and it becomes what we know as the egg. This egg is not a perfect
sphere, but is oval (in most Myriapods) in shape. The egg is laid, and
the process of segmentation begins shortly after it is laid, as has
already been described.
When it has been laid for about 36 hours, if we take an egg and,
after proper preparation, cut it into thin slices known to microscopists
by the name of sections, and examine it by means of the
microscope, we shall see that segmentation has resulted in this. Just
beneath the egg-shell there is a thin layer of cells, one cell thick,
which completely surrounds the egg. Inside this coat of cells is the
food yolk, with a few cells scattered about in it at rare intervals,
something like the raisins in a plum-pudding.
With the next process the formation of the young Myriapod may be
said to begin. A strip along the length of the oval-shaped egg is
thickened, and this thick mass of cells represents the future ventral
surface of the animal. The rest of the thin layer of cells already
mentioned just below the shell will form the shell or exoskeleton of
the future animal. The thick strip of cells at the ventral surface has by
this time split into layers, so that, resorting to our microscope again,
a section through the short axis of the oval-shaped egg—a
transverse section—will show us—
1. The egg-shell.
2. A layer of cells completely surrounding the egg, thin everywhere but on the
ventral surface. This layer is known to embryologists as the epiblast. The thick part
of the epiblast on the ventral surface gives rise to the nervous system.
3 and 4. Two layers of cells connected in the middle, along the line of the thick
strip, but separate elsewhere, and not extending round the whole of the inside.
These layers constitute what is known as the mesoblast, and give rise to the
muscles and most of the internal organs.
5. The scattered cells in the yolk. They are known as the hypoblast and give rise to
the digestive canal.
After this point is reached the formation of the organs begins. The
segments are formed in order from before backwards. First the head,
then the next segment, and so on. When the number of segments
with which the animal will be hatched are formed, another process
begins, and the tail end of the animal, which can already be
distinguished, is bent towards the head. This is a process that takes
place in many animals besides Myriapods, and is called the
formation of the ventral flexure. Shortly after this the animal bursts
the shell and comes into the outer world. The various processes may
be understood by reference to the Figs. 36, 37, 38, 39, which are
successive stages in the development of a Chilognath. Figs. 37, 38,
are thin slices through the shorter diameter of the egg, which, as
before mentioned, is an oval in shape. Fig. 39 is a section through
the longer diameter of an egg in a more advanced stage of
development, in fact just about to burst the shell. The body of the
future animal is marked by constrictions, the future segments. Some
of the organs are already formed, as the brain and the digestive
tube, the openings of which will form the mouth (st) and the anus
(pr).
After the animal is hatched it has still, in the case of most Myriapods
(those which are not hatched with all the segments complete), to
undergo a further development, and in particular the eyes are still
unformed. The process of development of the eye has only been
followed out as yet in the Chilognatha, and in only one form, Julus,
and is so curious that a short account may be of interest here. The
development of the eye begins (in Julus) on the fourth day after
hatching, and continues until the animal is full grown. A single
ocellus or eye-spot appears first, and the rest are added one by one
until the full number are reached.
The first appearances connected with the formation of the eye take
place in the cellular layer just beneath the chitinous exoskeleton.
This layer, called the hypodermis, plays an important part in the
organisation of the animal. It forms the inner layer of what we may
call the skin of the animal, and the cells of which it is composed
secrete the chitin of which the shell or exoskeleton of the animal is
composed, and which is moulted every year.
The wall of the vesicle nearest the exoskeleton gives rise to the lens
of the eye, while the other walls of the vesicle form the retinal parts
of the eye. The cells from the brain grow out and form the optic
nerve connecting the retina with the brain. The whole eye spot is
covered internally by a thin membrane, formed not from the
hypodermis but by cells from the inside of the body (mesoblast
cells).
Fig. 44.—Section through eye when first forming: Hyp, hypodermis; Ln,
lens; F.W.V, front wall of optic vesicle; b.w.v, back wall of vesicle;
cap, capsule.
The legs make their appearance not one by one but in batches (in
Julus terrestris in batches of five). The addition of legs and segments
to the body takes place, not at the end of the body, but between the
end segment and the penultimate.
Palaeontology.
The next oldest fossil Myriapods are found in the coal measures,
when both the animal and vegetable kingdoms were represented by
more numerous and more specialised forms. The fossil fauna of this
period is characterised by the number of gigantic Amphibia, many
remains of which have been found. The great forests and the
abundant vegetation of this time must have been favourable to the
existence of our class, and accordingly we find no less than 32
species of fossil Myriapods. Of these most have been found in
America, some in Great Britain, and some in Germany. One well-
preserved fossil of Xylobius sigillariae was found by Dr. Dawson in
America in the stump of a tree in the remains of a fossil forest. The
eyes, head, and legs were plainly seen under the microscope. All
these fossils belong to the earliest or Palaeozoic period.
Fig. 45.—Palaeocampa anthrax. (After Meek and Worth.) From Mazon
Creek, Illinois.
The figure below (Fig. 46) shows a fossil also from the coal
formations of Illinois, America, belonging to the family of the
Euphoberiidae mentioned further on. It shows a nearer approach to
the Julidae of the present time. The limbs, however, were of very
curious shape, and may possibly have been adapted to locomotion
in water as well as on land, and the small supposed branchiae on
the ventral surface shown in Fig. 46, B, may possibly have been an
arrangement to render respiration in the water possible.
Fossil Myriapods have been divided into four Orders, two of which
coincide with the Orders of living Myriapods; the differences between
the fossils and the living Myriapods having been held insufficient to
warrant the establishment of a new Order. These two Orders are the
Chilopoda and the Diplopoda or Chilognatha (Diplopoda is another
name used by some writers for the group which we have hitherto
called Chilognatha). The other two Orders have sufficient differences
from living forms to render it necessary to include them in separate
Orders.
Order I. Protosyngnatha.
Order II. Chilopoda.
Order III. Archipolypoda.
Order IV. Chilognatha (or Diplopoda).
The following table will show the species that have been discovered
in the different strata:—
Devonian, or
2 species of Archipolypoda
Old Red Sandstone
1 species Protosyngnatha
Carboniferous
31 species Archipolypoda
Permian (Rothliegendes of Germany), 4 specimens belonging to
the
Julidae or Archipolypoda.
Archipolypoda or
Cretaceous 1 species
Chilognatha
17 species Chilopoda
Oligocene Diplopoda
23 species
(Chilognatha)
Diplopoda
Miocene, 1 species
(Chilognatha)
I will now give a short account of the different Orders, and the fossil
forms which are included in them.
Order I. Protosyngnatha.
The fossil forms of this Order resemble those of the Chilopoda of the
present day. The oldest of them are found in amber. The following
families have been found:—
The most numerous of the fossil families. With a few exceptions, all
the Palaeozoic (that is, the oldest) Myriapods belong to this Order.
The Carboniferous Archipolypoda seem to be much more numerous
in the coal of America than in that of England. They resemble for the
most part the Myriapods of the present day, except that all the
segments without exception bear legs.
Family 1. Archidesmidae.
Resemble the Polydesmidae of the present day. Two species have been found by
Page in the Old Red Sandstone of Forfarshire. He named them Kampecaris. One
found by Peach in the same formation is called Archidesmus.
Family 2. Euphoberiidae.
They show some resemblance to the Julidae of the present day, but the dorsal
scutes, or plates of the back, are more or less perfectly divided into two divisions
corresponding with the pairs of legs. The following are the principal fossils of this
family:—
Euphoberia. About 12 species found at the same place as the last named.
Family 3. Archijulidae.
The dorsal plates nearly consolidated, but the division still apparent. Fossil forms
are—