The Thousand Legs. Millipedes. Polydesmus complanatus, Linn.

Fig. XI.

1, nat. size; 2, mag.

Though these are not insects in the strict scientific meaning of the term, as having no wings, nor undergoing any transformation, and not having bodies divided or cut, they must be described here, as having the habits of insects and habits injurious to cultivation. Linnæus classified these among the order Aptera, and Mr. Murray in his Hand Book of Economic Entomology follows this classification and treats them as insects. These thousand legs are utterly distinct from, first, Wireworms, with which they are sometimes confounded; second, Centipedes, Scolo-pendridœ, of which there are many species not coming within the scope of this work, as living mainly upon animal substances.

The thousand legs eat wheat, oats, and barley plants, but they are not nearly so destructive as wireworms, and several other root eating insects. They do much harm also to bean and pea crops, and are most injurious to French beans and broad beans in market gardens, and market garden farms in Essex, Bedfordshire, Surrey, and Kent. The species shown above, Polydesmus complanatus is perhaps the most troublesome to farm crops generally, but all the species are more or less injurious to vegetation.