Catesby, Mark. Appendix Pl. 2, Centipede and Hamamlis

Mark Catesby (1638 - 1749) Etching with hand color, paper dimensions: approximately 19 x 14 inchesFrom the Appendix (Part 11) to Catesby's Natural History of Carolina, Florida & the Bahama IslandsLondon: 1747 - 1771 Probably currently known as the Florida Keys centipede, Scolopendra alternans and Virginian witch-hazel, Hamamelis virginiana*, Catesby described these subjects as follows: SCOLOPENDRA.  These Insects are of different sizes. Some of them are eight inches in length, others not above four. The body is divided by twenty annuli, with double the number of legs, every one of which has four joints, with a single claw at their ends; besides two members like legs growing from its hindmost part, having five joints each. From each side of the head proceeds a pair of sharp-pointed forceps, which are its poisonous weapons, and a pair of antennas. The bite of this Insect in Jamaica is said to be as pernicious as that of a Scorpion. We have in England a diminutive species of this Inse