Millipedes
(Chilognatha). This group of Myriapoda is of greater importance to gardeners, and demands fuller consideration here, than their allies the Centipedes. Millipedes are usually nearly cylindrical, less often a good deal depressed and flattened, and the origins of the legs are usually brought very close to the middle line of the body below, instead of being rather widely separated. The legs are thus hidden from view below the body in the living animal; they are also short and individually weak, but are very numerous, though very far below the number indicated by the name Millipede, or Thousand-feet. The three rings immediately behind the head each bear one pair of legs; but each of the rings behind these seems, at first sight, to bear two pairs of legs. This is due to the rings of the abdomen becoming tightly joined together two and two, while the limbs remain useful for movement, and fully formed. the last pair are not enlarged or noticeable, as in the Centipedes. As in the former group, so in the Millipedes, the only kinds met with here are small, seldom, if ever, surpassing 2in. in length; but, among the species of warmer lands, many kinds are upwards of 6in. long, and are stout in proportion to their length. Almost all of this group are in the habit, when disturbed, of curling up the body into a spiral, so as to protect the head, with its various organs, from injury. The Millipedes do not possess poison-tubes. They feed, in great part, on decaying vegetable tissues, and they may frequently be met with among dead leaves and other rubbish. In gardens, they may often be found under, or in, flower-pots; and they do damage, at times, to the potted plants, as well as to fleshy roots and tubers in the soil, and to fallen fruits, or to Strawberries. Occasionally they also injure germinating seeds of various cultivated plants, such as Beans, Turnips, &c. It may, at times, be found necessary to diminish their numbers where they are very plentiful. The most hurtful kinds are found to be Julus guttulatus, J. terrestris, and Polydesmus complanatus--the last-named being the flattened Millipede so abundant everywhere.
Remedies. These are seldom pressingly required. Deep trenching tends to lessen any superabundance. Traps may be used, in the form of pieces of carrot, or fallen fruits, laid on the soil. These should be frequently examined, and the Millipedes on them destroyed.