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