Millipedes : New Genus Discovered
Researchers recently discovered a new genus and five new species of millipedes in remote African jungles.
- Millipedes are any member of the arthropod class Diplopoda i.e Arthropods are animals with hard exoskeletons and jointed limbs
- They are cylindrical or slightly flattened invertebrates.
- The word millipede translates to a thousand feet but while millipedes have many feet, none of them quite have a thousand.
- They’re not insects.
- They are actually more closely related to lobsters, crayfish, and shrimp.
- There are approximately 12,000 species distributed worldwide.
- They are typically found in areas of high moisture and decaying vegetation, such as under trash, in piles of grass and leaves, etc.
- They are usually blackish or brownish in color, but some are also red, orange, or have mottled patterns.
- Their bodies are split into a number of segments, and each segment has two sets of legs that attach to the body’s underside, except for the first (head) segment, which is legless, and the next three segments, which each contain one pair of legs.
- Most millipedes are nocturnal and are primarily scavengers, feeding on decaying plants and occasionally dead insects. , although some species attack the roots of living plants.
