Millipede is no longer a lie
December 16, 2021 8:33 PM Subscribe
Until now, the leggiest known creature on Earth clocked in at a mere 750 appendages. This one has 1,306. (SLAtlantic - or archive.is)
DEM GAMS
(I made myself read the whole piece before posting that initial throwaway reaction. Interesting stuff, go E. persephone!)
posted by I'm always feeling, Blue at 9:11 PM on December 16, 2021 [3 favorites]
(I made myself read the whole piece before posting that initial throwaway reaction. Interesting stuff, go E. persephone!)
posted by I'm always feeling, Blue at 9:11 PM on December 16, 2021 [3 favorites]
Diplopodologists—people who studied millipedes
I'm not sure if I'm more surprised that there's a name, or that it doesn't contain "millli"
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 9:48 PM on December 16, 2021 [1 favorite]
That generic name, eumillipes (true thousand-feet), is a delicious little dig at every other millipede ever.
posted by agentofselection at 10:06 PM on December 16, 2021 [26 favorites]
posted by agentofselection at 10:06 PM on December 16, 2021 [26 favorites]
Neat!
Diplopodologists
My field is guilty of many bad things. At least we managed to avoid latinization.
posted by eotvos at 10:16 PM on December 16, 2021 [2 favorites]
My field is guilty of many bad things. At least we managed to avoid latinization.
posted by eotvos at 10:16 PM on December 16, 2021 [2 favorites]
Affectionate pets?!
posted by lauranesson at 10:16 PM on December 16, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by lauranesson at 10:16 PM on December 16, 2021 [1 favorite]
That six just feels extra.
posted by vegartanipla at 10:56 PM on December 16, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by vegartanipla at 10:56 PM on December 16, 2021 [5 favorites]
"The creature... is extraordinarily small—not even four inches"
If a 3.75" millipede is considered "extraordinarily small" I don't want to know what kind of horrors this author regularly sees.
posted by ZaphodB at 11:28 PM on December 16, 2021 [5 favorites]
If a 3.75" millipede is considered "extraordinarily small" I don't want to know what kind of horrors this author regularly sees.
posted by ZaphodB at 11:28 PM on December 16, 2021 [5 favorites]
Sorry, that's 1,302 too many. Not allowed. Unless you're an octopus. Their kind of cool.
posted by eagles123 at 11:33 PM on December 16, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by eagles123 at 11:33 PM on December 16, 2021 [1 favorite]
Millipede Walk (leggy macro millipede closeups with ultra slow-mo), Wonder Science TV (YT). More about metachronal rhythm, including The Wave.
posted by cenoxo at 11:59 PM on December 16, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by cenoxo at 11:59 PM on December 16, 2021 [4 favorites]
1,306 feet / 4 inches = 326.5 feet / inch
posted by Going To Maine at 12:19 AM on December 17, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Going To Maine at 12:19 AM on December 17, 2021 [1 favorite]
Diplopodologists—people who studied millipedes
Are any sauropods known to take an interest in this field?
posted by grahamparks at 1:58 AM on December 17, 2021 [2 favorites]
Are any sauropods known to take an interest in this field?
posted by grahamparks at 1:58 AM on December 17, 2021 [2 favorites]
I rather like millipedes, especially the way all those little legs move in a wave and they never trip themselves up. Centipedes on the other hand, I don't like - scuttly, venomous little bastards, although useful in the garden.
Also, bad news ZaphodB, the very largest millipedes run about a foot long. Apparently they make good pets.
posted by Fuchsoid at 2:22 AM on December 17, 2021 [4 favorites]
Also, bad news ZaphodB, the very largest millipedes run about a foot long. Apparently they make good pets.
posted by Fuchsoid at 2:22 AM on December 17, 2021 [4 favorites]
They just do one thing, which is tunnel around and eat things.
I don't think I can trust an entomologist to count up to one, let alone 1,306.
posted by Beverley Westwood at 2:39 AM on December 17, 2021 [5 favorites]
I don't think I can trust an entomologist to count up to one, let alone 1,306.
posted by Beverley Westwood at 2:39 AM on December 17, 2021 [5 favorites]
I rather like millipedes, especially the way all those little legs move in a wave and they never trip themselves up. Centipedes on the other hand, I don't like - scuttly, venomous little bastards, although useful in the garden.
Agreed. Millipedes are slow enough to not bother me, but centipedes...Yech!
posted by Literaryhero at 3:02 AM on December 17, 2021
Agreed. Millipedes are slow enough to not bother me, but centipedes...Yech!
posted by Literaryhero at 3:02 AM on December 17, 2021
Hold on a sec, I'm just putting on my shoes.
posted by Umami Dearest at 3:21 AM on December 17, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by Umami Dearest at 3:21 AM on December 17, 2021 [4 favorites]
These critters live 200 feet below the surface, that’s totally awesome.
posted by rockindata at 4:28 AM on December 17, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by rockindata at 4:28 AM on December 17, 2021 [2 favorites]
Discovering a millipede species with over a thousand legs is an incredible feet.
posted by AlSweigart at 6:42 AM on December 17, 2021 [17 favorites]
posted by AlSweigart at 6:42 AM on December 17, 2021 [17 favorites]
:)
posted by millipede at 7:59 AM on December 17, 2021 [12 favorites]
posted by millipede at 7:59 AM on December 17, 2021 [12 favorites]
If I'd ever given it any thought, I would've bet on there being some little extra brain there back toward the caboose, helping them keep coordinated--interesting to hear that their legs aren't individually controlled at all. Which makes sense, when you think about how their gait moves in such waves.
posted by mittens at 8:13 AM on December 17, 2021
posted by mittens at 8:13 AM on December 17, 2021
genie: please no
e. persephone: more legs
posted by Lorin at 8:44 AM on December 17, 2021 [2 favorites]
e. persephone: more legs
posted by Lorin at 8:44 AM on December 17, 2021 [2 favorites]
Also, bad news ZaphodB, the very largest millipedes run about a foot long. Apparently they make good pets.
posted by Fuchsoid at 5:22 AM on December 17
oh good. thank you.
i'm so itchy right now.
posted by ZaphodB at 9:56 AM on December 17, 2021
posted by Fuchsoid at 5:22 AM on December 17
oh good. thank you.
i'm so itchy right now.
posted by ZaphodB at 9:56 AM on December 17, 2021
I'm just glad it's an even number.
posted by klanawa at 11:08 AM on December 17, 2021 [6 favorites]
posted by klanawa at 11:08 AM on December 17, 2021 [6 favorites]
Holding the World’s Biggest Millipede (YT): Archispirostreptus gigas.
posted by cenoxo at 12:51 PM on December 17, 2021
posted by cenoxo at 12:51 PM on December 17, 2021
I had a pet millipede for a summer (then let it go) and even though it was neat (six inches long; didn't count the legs), I don't think I'd go so far as to say it was a good pet.
E. persephone appears to be long not because it needs the legs, but because it needs the digestive power of a long gut. And the paper points out that something that long can't easily protect itself from predators, so being 200 feet underground helps it avoid encounters. And that far underground, I guess your best food is fungi. Spores can be filled with energy-rich lipids, but you might have to digest a thick wall to get to them.
And this aligns with my interests! I study fungal propagules, and I use snails to eat spores, partly digest the walls, and excrete the spores in a state that allows them to germinate. I'd sure like to feed some spores to these millipedes.
posted by acrasis at 1:01 PM on December 17, 2021 [4 favorites]
E. persephone appears to be long not because it needs the legs, but because it needs the digestive power of a long gut. And the paper points out that something that long can't easily protect itself from predators, so being 200 feet underground helps it avoid encounters. And that far underground, I guess your best food is fungi. Spores can be filled with energy-rich lipids, but you might have to digest a thick wall to get to them.
And this aligns with my interests! I study fungal propagules, and I use snails to eat spores, partly digest the walls, and excrete the spores in a state that allows them to germinate. I'd sure like to feed some spores to these millipedes.
posted by acrasis at 1:01 PM on December 17, 2021 [4 favorites]
Dear Diplopodologists, I never thought I would be writing to you —-
Open like so and they’ll be relieved to loan you a spore-peeler, I bet.
posted by clew at 1:52 PM on December 17, 2021
Open like so and they’ll be relieved to loan you a spore-peeler, I bet.
posted by clew at 1:52 PM on December 17, 2021
[pours one out for the graduate student who had to count all of them]
posted by cardboard at 5:41 PM on December 17, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by cardboard at 5:41 PM on December 17, 2021 [3 favorites]
Millipedes are cool. I found one of the bright orange and yellow and black ones walking on a trail by my house and brought it home to the garden in my hat. Turned out it excretes cyanide, so I didn’t wear that hat for a while.
When I looked it up, the stuff I found claimed it didn’t occur as far north as Minnesota. I tried emailing someone at the U of M, but apparently they weren’t interested. It was super cool walking—the legs were bright yellow so you could see the waves like an animation.
posted by Gilgamesh's Chauffeur at 9:28 PM on December 17, 2021
When I looked it up, the stuff I found claimed it didn’t occur as far north as Minnesota. I tried emailing someone at the U of M, but apparently they weren’t interested. It was super cool walking—the legs were bright yellow so you could see the waves like an animation.
posted by Gilgamesh's Chauffeur at 9:28 PM on December 17, 2021
GC, did it smell like cherries? This Insanely Colourful Millipede Can Kill 18 Adult Birds, Science Alert, Michelle Starr, 29 January 2018:
posted by cenoxo at 4:29 AM on December 18, 2021 [1 favorite]
[Photos]*The paper describing the discovery has been published in the journal Zootaxa.
A newly discovered millipede has more colour combinations than any other millipede ever discovered - but its bright and striking colouring is a warning that attempting to dine on the arthropod may be biting off more than one can chew.
The multi-legged creature is called Apheloria polychroma [*]. The species is found on the forest floor of Southwest Virginia's Cumberland Mountains, and its colourful carapace is coated with cyanide as a deterrent to predatory birds.
This is actually a fairly common defence mechanism among millipedes, and various species have demonstrated the secretion of hydrogen cyanide and benzoyl cyanide when disturbed. They also release a host of other chemicals, such as mandelonitrile benzoate and benzaldehyde, both for defensive purposes and perhaps as an antibiotic.
…
A. polychroma has been given the vernacular name "Colourful Cherry Millipede". The cherry part isn't actually related to the colour, but refers to the scent of benzaldehyde, an organic compound released by the arthropod…..
posted by cenoxo at 4:29 AM on December 18, 2021 [1 favorite]
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posted by cenoxo at 11:25 AM on December 18, 2021 [6 favorites]
posted by cenoxo at 11:25 AM on December 18, 2021 [6 favorites]
An exciting month for millepedes: Largest ever giant millipede fossil found on UK beach
posted by trig at 7:39 AM on December 21, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by trig at 7:39 AM on December 21, 2021 [3 favorites]
Largest ever giant millipede fossil found on UK beach
More about The largest arthropod in Earth history: insights from newly discovered Arthropleura remains (Serpukhovian Stainmore Formation, Northumberland, England), Lyell Collection Journal of the Geological Society, 21 December 2021:
posted by cenoxo at 8:16 AM on December 23, 2021
More about The largest arthropod in Earth history: insights from newly discovered Arthropleura remains (Serpukhovian Stainmore Formation, Northumberland, England), Lyell Collection Journal of the Geological Society, 21 December 2021:
… It represents one of the largest known arthropod fossils and the largest arthropleurid recovered to date, the earliest (Mississippian) body fossil evidence for gigantism in Arthropleura, and the first instance of a giant arthropleurid body fossil within the same regional sedimentary succession as the large arthropod trackway Diplichnites cuithensis. The remains represent 12–14 anterior Arthropleura tergites in the form of a partially sand-filled dorsal exoskeleton. The original organism is estimated to have been 55 cm in width and up to 2.63 m in length, weighing c. 50 kg. …See also WP > Arthropleura – Extinct genus of many-legged arthropods.
posted by cenoxo at 8:16 AM on December 23, 2021
…and YouTube > Millipedes Used To Be Big Enough To Ride.
posted by cenoxo at 8:27 AM on December 23, 2021
posted by cenoxo at 8:27 AM on December 23, 2021
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posted by kkar at 8:38 PM on December 16, 2021 [1 favorite]