Saturday 31 January 2009

Legs eleven (or sixty)

Amongst the forest litter under the Snow Gums at Hotham we found a millipede, a very long millipede. At least eight or nine centimetres long. And with a brilliant metallic sheen.

I'm finding it difficult to identify it because as usual my photos don't show the bit I need to see - in this case the eyes. If it's blind then for sure it's a Polydesmid Millipede but if it's not then it's probably a Spirobolid Millipede. I'm guessing the former because it only has about 19 body segments. Apparently I have to see how many legs on the fourth segment or the fifth segment but I can't tell. There's a lot to be said for 'collecting' but of course it's not the correct thing to do these days.

Sometimes I wish I was an 'expert' at something, anything! Anyway, it was certainly an impressive creature, and we carefully put it back into the leaf litter before we went on our way.




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