#polydesmidae

[wild-e-eep]

One of those flat-backed millipedes, jaywalking in the rain.

[crevicedwelling]

one of the most impressive animals I met this year was a huge platyrhacid millipede, found chugging through some bamboo leaf litter in Malaysia.

he was a pleasant weight to hold in the hand, but spread out over so many gentle, graceful legs. the video offers a nice look at his eyeless face—all polydesmidan millipedes lack eyes.

I only hung onto this animated spinal cord for about thirty seconds before setting him back in the leaves, but I recall this encounter so vividly. a truly memorable creature

[onenicebugperday]

Mexican blue flat-backed millipede, Strongylodesmus conspicuus, Polydesmida

Photos by ismaeleduardo-huerta-de-la-barrera

[creatureimages]

love that "small pink and lumpy" is such a common design for millipedes that it's basically impossible to id these guys beyond polydesmids

[alienbath]

This is a flat-back millipede, these guys produce hydrogen cyanide and can be freaky to look at but they’re just little guys

(Source: MarkEisingBirding)

[haveyouseenthisanimal-irl]

Range: Southeast Alaska to California

[jenfoundabug]

Xystocheir dissecta, a species of flat-backed millipede found only in California. They’re fairly common in forest litter around the Bay Area and show up very well with a black light at night. Like many flat-backed millipedes, they produce hydrogen cyanide as a chemical defense against predators.

Here’s the same individual in white light:

[rattyexplores]

Strange pyrgodesmid millipedes.

13/01/24 - Pyrgodesmidae sp.

QLD:WET

[collapsiblebrain]

tippy tappy

[crowputer]

Okay bugposting over for now I found a new favorite arthropod order

[urbancaveevacuation]

Kentucky flat millipede (Apheloria virginiensis), family Xystodesmidae, order polydesmida, North Carolina

[fungi-maestro]

Woods day 👍

[crevicedwelling]

the polydesmidan millipede family Paradoxosomatidae is highly diverse in Southeast Asia, and here’s a bunch I saw last year. these first two are from Sarawak, Malaysia, and I have no idea what they are.

many paradoxosomatids are arboreal and some even diurnal, despite belonging to an order that lacks eyes entirely. they can march around with little fear though because like many millipedes, they’re full of foul-tasting toxins that most predators can’t tolerate. they advertise this with bright colors and rippling leg displays, as seen in the video.

the rest are from Singapore; this one is also unidentified.

an Orthomorpha murphyi pair with a little pyrgodesmid passing by.

Opisthodolichopus scandens is nicely marked with pink.

Anoplodesmus sassurei is a very common species in Singapore, and seems to emerge in large numbers on sidewalks after a good rain.

[onenicebugperday]

Orange-spotted black millipede, Dibolostethus sp., Chelodesmidae, Polydesmida

Photographed by tshahan in Colombia

[ratbugs]

seems to be some kind of flat-backed millipede, polydesmus sp i believe?

y’all i just found the cutest thing i ever did see

losing my fucking mind over this guy

[herpsandbirds]

Dragon Millipede (Desmoxytes planata), family Paradoxosomatidae, probably native to the Andaman Islands, but introduced widely to tropical regions around the world

photograph via:

Ruttapon Srisonchai, Henrik Enghoff, Natdanai Likhitrakarn, Somsak Panha - Srisonchai R, Enghoff H, Likhitrakarn N, Panha S (2018) A revision of dragon millipedes I: genus Desmoxytes Chamberlin, 1923, with the description of eight new species (Diplopoda, Polydesmida, Paradoxosomatidae). 

ZooKeys 761: 1-177. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.761.24214