UNWELCOME STRANGERS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20969, 7 March 1930, Page 10

UNWELCOME STRANGERS.

CENTIPEDES IN BANANAS. (Special to Daily Times.) CHRISTCHURCH, March 6. When a city fruiterer opened a case of Samoan bananas which had -just T(k cently arrived he was startled to see a large centipede wriggle out. Before it could escape it was trapped beween some boards and eventually persuaded to enter a bottle, where it would be safe from inflicting injury on anyone who might again encounter it suddenly. The creature is about six inches Ion", amber coloured, and with black ring’s around the trunk a little less than °a quarter of an inch apart. It has 22 pairs of legs which join the body at the rings. It belongs to the genus scolopendndfc, of which about 10 species are known. They are especially at home in warm countries, where they often attain large size, one variety being sometimes a foot long. The poison bite of some of the larger forms, inflicted with a pair of sharp claws close to the head, is really dangerous to man, though not always fatal.

The fruiterer, when approached bv a reporter to-day, stated that he had seen centipedes in cases of bananas before, hu not so large as the one encountered yesterday. He had come across cockroaches several times, and a black one was once three inches in length. In the last lot of bananas there were cockroaches which made a hissing noise. Another fruiterer said that centipedes in hannna cases were fairly common, but immediately they were discovered they were killed. A black centipede quite nine inches in length was one evening encountered on the stairs of a shop by a girl.