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nultimate segments. C, Terminal segment or fang of the same, showing the orifice of the poison gland.] _Remarks._--The Geophilomorpha are universally distributed in suitable localities. The number of families into which the order should be divided is as yet unsettled, some authors admitting several groups of this rank, others referring all the genera to a single family, _Geophilidae_. In habits the _Geophilidae_ are mostly subterranean, living in the earth and feeding principally upon earthworms. Occasionally they may be found eating fruit or fungi, probably for the sake of moisture. Although without eyes, they are extremely sensitive to light, and when exposed to it crawl away in serpentine fashion to the nearest sheltered spot, feeling the way with their antennae. They can, however, progress with almost equal facility backwards, using the legs of the posterior pair as feelers. Differing from the majority of the family in habits are the two species _Linotaenia maritima_ and _Schendyla submarina_, which live under stones or seaweed between tide-marks on the coasts of western Europe. Most, if not all, the species are provided with glands, which open upon the sterna and secrete a fluid which in some forms (_Himantarium_) is blood-red, while in others it is phosphorescent. In the tropical form _Orphnaeus phosphoreus_ the fluid is known to possess this property; and its luminosity has been repeatedly observed in England in the autumn in the case of _Linotaenia acuminata_ and _L. crassipes_. The number of pairs of legs within this family varies from between thirty and forty to over one hundred and seventy. Corresponding discrepancies are observable in size, the smallest specimens being less than 1 in. long and barely 1 mm. wide, while the largest example recorded, a specimen of _Notiphilides_ from Venezuela, was 11 in. long and 1/3 of an inch wide. When pairing takes place the female fertilizes herself by taking up a spermatophore which a male has left upon a sheet of web for that purpose. The female lays a cluster of eggs in some sheltered spot, sometimes in a specially prepared nest, and encircling them with her body, keeps guard until the young disperse and shift for themselves. [Illustration: FIG. 7.--_Scolopendra morsitans_ (after Buffon). A, a, Cephalic plate. b, Tergum of segment, bearing first pair of legs (d). c, T
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