Two new species of slender gecko reported in Yunnan karsts

As the largest family of geckos, Gekkonidae shows high levels of endemism in karst systems. Hemiphyllodactylus (commonly known as half leaf-fingered geckos, dwarf geckos, or slender geckos), belongs to the family Gekkonidae. ...

First ever true millipede with over 1,000 feet found

Scientists have discovered the world's first true millipede, a study said Thursday, describing a long, thin and segmented creature with a whopping 1,306 legs—more than any other animal ever.

First millipede with more than 1,000 legs discovered

The discovery of the first millipede with more than 1,000 legs is reported in Scientific Reports this week. Prior to this, no millipede had been found with more than 750 legs.

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Millipede

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Millipedes are arthropods that have two pairs of legs per segment (except for the first segment behind the head which does not have any appendages at all, and the next few which only have one pair of legs). Each segment that has two pairs of legs is a result of two single segments fused together as one. Most millipedes have very elongated cylindrical bodies, although some are flattened dorso-ventrally, while pill millipedes are shorter and can roll into a ball, like a pillbug.

The name "millipede" is a compound word formed from the Latin roots mille ("thousand") and pes ("foot"). Despite their name, millipedes do not have 1,000 legs, although the rare species Illacme plenipes has up to 750. Common species have between 36 and 400 legs. The class contains around 10,000 species in 13 orders and 115 families. The giant African millipede (Archispirostreptus gigas), known as shongololos, is the largest species of millipede.

Millipedes are detritivores and slow moving. Most millipedes eat decaying leaves and other dead plant matter, moisturising the food with secretions and then scraping it in with their jaws. However, they can also be minor garden pests, especially in greenhouses where they can cause severe damage to emergent seedlings. Signs of millipede damage include the stripping of the outer layers of a young plant stem and irregular damage to leaves and plant apices, the very top of a plant.

Millipedes can be easily distinguished from the somewhat similar and related centipedes (Class Chilopoda), which move rapidly, and have a single pair of legs for each body segment.

This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA