a-book-of-creatures

[a-book-of-creatures]

Giant Emerald Pill-Millipede: when these enormous millipedes are all rolled up, their bodies can be as big as a baseball, a tennis ball, or a small orange

This species (Zoosphaerium neptunus) is commonly known as a giant emerald pill-millipede. The females can measure up to 90mm long (roughly 3.5 inches), making this the largest species of pill-millipede in the world.

There is a significant degree of sexual dimorphism in this species, with the males measuring only about 45mm (1.8 inches) long -- roughly half the size of the females.

Giant emerald pill-millipedes are found only in Madagascar, which is home to several endemic species of giant pill-millipedes (order Sphaerotheriida). The Malagasy name for giant pill-millipedes is "Tainkintana," which means "shooting-star."

Pill-millipedes use conglobation as a defense mechanism, which means that they can curl their bodies up into a spherical shape so that their dorsal plates form a protective shield around the softer, more vulnerable parts of their bodies, just like an actual pill-bug or a "roly-poly."

When they roll themselves up completely, they look almost like gently polished chunks of malachite, emerald, or jade.

Giant emerald pill-millipedes will sometimes form large swarms that travel together as a group. This is the only species of giant pill-millipede that engages in any sort of swarming behavior, and the purpose of that behavior is still unclear. The swarms often contain thousands of individuals, with almost all of them moving in the same direction, even when there is no physical contact that might allow the millipedes to "herd" one another along.

Their swarming behavior also has some very peculiar features, as this article explains:

During swarming, Zoosphaerium neptunus individuals pay little attention to their surroundings; many specimens were observed walking straight into and drowning in small puddles. Some swarms even display ‘cliché lemming behaviour:' in Marojejy, a large part of a swarm walked into and drowned in a small river.

No single specimen was observed walking ‘against the current,' all specimens were moving in the same direction (southeast), even when not in contact with one another.

Of 273 randomly collected individuals, 105 were males, while 168 were females. The males were 8.3 - 14.1 mm wide (average width 10.4 mm). According to the inner horns of the posterior telopods, all males were sexually mature. The females were 9.95 - 15.4 mm wide (average width 11.4 mm). All females displayed non sclerotized vulvae and were sexually immature.

Some researchers argue that the swarming serves as a defense mechanism, providing a layer of protection (or at least some cryptic cover) against local predators, but the swarming behavior is still poorly understood.

Important Note: I just want to remind everyone that these animals belong in their own natural habitat -- they should not be trapped, bought/sold, traded, shipped, collected, or kept as pets. This particular species does not survive well in captivity, either, and the demand for these "exotic" invertebrates is putting the wild populations in jeopardy. The previous article discusses those issues, too:

Another possible threat for Z. neptunus swarms are collections for the pet trade. There exists a large demand in Japan, Europe and North America for 'green -eyed monsters’ as pets. Giant pill -millipedes from Madagascar unfortunately have a very short survival time in terraria. The species is specialized on low-energy food (dead leaves), and adapted to the cool climates (<20°C) of the highlands. Specimens in terraria often starve to death quickly.

So I know that they're adorable and really, really fascinating...but let's just let them be their chunky, adorable little selves out in the wild where they belong.

Sources & More Info:

European Journal of Taxonomy: Seven New Giant Pill-Millipede Species and New Records of the Genus Zoosphaerium from Madagascar

Madagascar Conservation & Development: Swarming Behavior in the World's Largest Giant Pill-Millipede, Z. neptunus, and its Implication for Conservation Efforts

Bonn Zoological Bulletin Supplementum: The Giant Millipedes, Order Sphaerotheriida (an Annotated Species Catalogue) (PDF)

African Invertebrates: Madagascar's Living Giants: Discovery of Five New Species of Endemic Giant Pill-Millipedes from Madagascar (PDF)

[a-book-of-creatures]

Source details and larger version.

Crawling along is my collection of vintage snail imagery.

[a-book-of-creatures]

That feeling when your finger itches and you scratch and scratch it but get no relief whatsoever then you realize it was actually another finger that was itchy and your brain somehow couldn’t tell which of your appendages needed a good scratching

[a-book-of-creatures]

They literally said “your song’s too stupid to copyright”

Okay this quote from my copyright book is more brutal than anything I read in products liability

[a-book-of-creatures]

Alix - T32 - La Dernière Conquête

[a-book-of-creatures]

And yet Ragnar Lodbrok didn’t take the hint >_>

[a-book-of-creatures]

um actually

nebuchadnezzar's dream of the statue made of four metals

miniature from a manuscript containing the world chronicle by rudolf von ems and other texts, bavaria, c. 1400-1410

source: Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, Ms. 33, fol. 210r

[a-book-of-creatures]

Horse figure of the day: Franklin Mint's Treasury of Unicorns "24K Gold"

[a-book-of-creatures]

Takahē By: New Zealand High Commission From: Man and Wildlife 1970

[a-book-of-creatures]

tiktok refugees i believe you are few but it is VITAL that you know on tumblr you can speak freely. kill. die. sex. fuck. you can say things here

[a-book-of-creatures]

Happy Dracones Monday! The Vishap

Found in the Armenian highlands, in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkey. Here we see one perched on a vishapakar stone ('dragon stone') in Armenia - these stones are often in the shape of fish or have a carving of some sort of animal sacrifice on them (often a bull), and sometimes they have a mix of fish and bull carvings.

This is just my interpretation of a vishap for Dracones Mundi - I chose to go a little more flamboyant with the design rather than make something that looked like a bull or a fish - especially as it's uncertain whether the carvings on the vishapakar are supposed to represent the dragons physically, or if they are more symbolic of summoning good luck for livestock, fishing or fertility.

I post new dragons for my project every Monday on this blog: @draconesmundi

[a-book-of-creatures]

euro souvenirs wild boar

[a-book-of-creatures]

Lucian of Samosata basically inventing sci-fi solely for a bit will never not be funny.

[a-book-of-creatures]

[a-book-of-creatures]

🐟 A history of the fishes of the British Islands London: G. Bell, 1877-1878.

[a-book-of-creatures]

Ratification is nowhere near as interesting as the word makes it sound :/

[a-book-of-creatures]

Congo peacock By: Kenneth W. Fink From: Pheasants of the World 1993