AW Millipede & Centipede Book: Pics & Descriptions

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Africa Wild Millipede and Centipede Book: Myriapoda

Upload your picture of a millipede or centipede and add a description underneath. Please only do one species per post.

All entries will be edited and updated (additional photos and information will be added by moderators). New entries will be posted according to taxonomic order and the post date does not reflect the actual date of new posts.



Links:
The Myriapoda of the Kruger National Park
http://biodiversityadvisor.sanbi.org/wp ... pedes.xlsx

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Class Diplopoda (Millipedes)
Order Sphaerotheriida
Family Sphaerotheriidae
Sphaerotherium giganteum Pill Millipede viewtopic.php?p=175846#p175846
Sphaerotherium sp. Pill Millipede viewtopic.php?p=244054#p244054

Order Spirobolida
Family Pachybolidae
Centrobolus sp. Red Millipede viewtopic.php?f=247&t=3226&p=163230#p163230
Centrobolus sp. Red Millipede viewtopic.php?p=236789#p236789

Order Spirostreptida (Common Millipedes)
Family Spirostreptidae
Doratogonus flavifilis Giant Millipede viewtopic.php?p=251291#p251291
Family Harpagophoridae (Spineplate Millipedes)
Zinophora cf. similis Largespine Millipede viewtopic.php?p=532352#p532352

Class: Chilopoda (Centipedes)
Order: Scolopendromorpha.
Family: Scolopendridae
Ethmostigmus trigonopodus Giant Blue Centipede, Blue Ring Centipede viewtopic.php?f=247&t=3226&p=161682#p161682

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Giant Blue Centipede, Blue Ring Centipede Ethmostigmus trigonopodus
Class: Chilopoda. Order: Scolopendromorpha. Family: Scolopendridae

© mposthumus
Kruger National Park - S128

The Scolopendromorpha have 21 or 23 body segments with the same number of paired legs. Their antennae have 17 or more segments. Their eyes (if present) have at least 5 facets on each side. The order comprises the three families Cryptopidae, Scolopendridae and Scolopocryptopidae.

Distribution
South Africa (KNP; Mpumalanga; Limpopo); Tanzania, Zimbabwe

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Red Millipede, Mozambique Millipede Centrobolus sp.
Class: Diplopoda. Order: Spirobolida. Family: Pachybolidae. Subfamily: Centrobolinae

© Twigga
Kruger National Park

Spirobolid millipedes of the order Spirobolida are distinguished by the presence of distinct pleurites on each body segment, just above the legs, and a pronounced suture that runs vertically down the front of the head. Both pairs of legs on the seventh segment of the male are modified into gonopods. Spirobolidans are smooth, cylindrical millipedes with 35-60 body segments in adults. They can be distinguished by the number of legs: spirobolidans have one pair on each of the first five body segments, two pairs on succeeding segments. They possess repugnatorial glands that produce defensive secretions, such as benzoquinones and hydroquinones, that may irritate and stain the skin. Species are often large and conspicuous, and sometimes brightly coloured and patterned.
Spirobolids have both pairs on legs of the seventh segment modified into gonopods, which are used during sperm transfer into the gonopore of the female. Eggs are laid into soil or detritus. Newly emerged young possess three pairs of legs. Development is gradual and gonopods are first formed during several nymphal stages and molts preceding the final adult form. Growth, and therefore moulting, continues through adulthood, and their life span is typically several years.
Spirobolid millipedes are detritivores, feeding on decaying vegetable matter.
The order Spirobolida is a species-rich order, with more than 1200 species described from the sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia and Australia.

There 23 species of Centrobolus in the eastern half of Southern Africa. Most species are similar in size (about 10 cm) and appearance (red in
colour, some with black marks). Their habitat preference is woodland and coastal forest.

[Flutterby]

Pill Millipede Species of Sphaerotherium, possibly Sphaerotherium giganteum
Class: Diplopoda. Order: Sphaerotheriida. Family: Sphaerotheriidae


We saw it in Richard's Bay. It was about 10 cm long and about as fat as my thumb. When you touch it, it rolls up into a ball.

The body consits of 12 tergites plus anal shield, 11 pleurites, 21 stigmatic plates and 21 (females) or 23 (males) pair of legs. A 13th tergite is completely fused with the anal shield.

Unlike other millipedes, giant pill-millipedes cannot excrete poisonous defence fluids. The rolling-in behaviour is a good defence against predators, but leads to communication break-down with a potential mate. In order to mate with her, the male has to “uncoil” the female. To do this he lets out a specific signal by rubbing special ribs on the last pair of legs across nubs on the body shield. The male thus produces sounds similar to those made by cicadas. The females detect the vibrations emitted by stridulations. Each species produces a different song.

Sphaerotherium giganteum is the largest species of its genus. Its size can easily reach 6 cm and more. When rolled up, they are the size of a golf ball.

Links: Some millipedes need “good vibrations” to mate!; Sympatric Sphaerotherium species, South Africa 1972: - Supplementum

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Red Millipede, Mozambique Millipede Centrobolus sp.
Class: Diplopoda. Order: Spirobolida. Family: Pachybolidae. Subfamily: Centrobolinae

© Lisbeth
Umtamvuna Nature Reserve, southern KwaZulu-Natal

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Pill Millipede Sphaerotherium sp.
Class: Diplopoda. Order: Sphaerotheriida. Family: Sphaerotheriidae

© Peter Connan
Maphelane, iSimangaliso, KwaZulu-Natal

Sphaerotherium, the Pill Millipede is common in coastal forest where it feeds on decaying plant matter.

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The order Spirostreptida is represented by four families, 23 genera and 228 species in Africa south of the Zambezi and Kunene Rivers. The spirostreptidans are probably the most familiar, conspicuous and commonly encountered group of diplopods in the tropics.
The spirostreptidan order contains worm-like millipedes which have elongate, cylindrical bodies comprising 40-70 body rings. They have a compact group of ocelli arranged in the form of a triangle at the base of the antenna. They can be distinguished externally from the other worm-like order, the Spirobolida, by the absence of a fleshy pad on the last segment of the legs of the male. Instead, most spirostreptidans possess a similar pad on the fourth and fifth segments of the leg. In addition, the spirobolids are characterised by a distinct mid-ventral frontal suture on the head, while this is absent in the spirostreptidans. The gonopods of the two orders are also distinct.
Females or juveniles currently have little value when identifying millipedes. The gonopods, found on the seventh body ring of mature males, are modified legs which serve to transfer sperm to the reproductive opening of the female. These gonopods are extremely elaborate and are the most useful character in millipede identification.

The genus Doratogonus contains 25 species, at least 20 in Southern Africa, mainly in eastern part of South Africa, with only 1 species known from Namibia. Other species are from subequatorial Africa.

Links:
https://journals.co.za/doi/pdf/10.10520/AJA03040798_105

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Giant Millipede Doratogonus flavifilis
Class: Diplopoda. Order: Spirostreptida. Family: Spirostreptidae.

© BluTuna
S44, Kruger National Park

Description
Doratogonus flavifilis, is the only Giant Millipede that is differently coloured – all others are black. Metasoraites black or blackish-brown. The posterior margin reddish-brown. Prosoniites yellowish in the concealed part. Antennae and legs yellow or reddish-brown. 62-63 segments. Width 3-10 mm.

Distribution
Mozambique; South Africa (KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo Province, Mpumalanga)

Links: The Myriopoda of South Africa. By C. Attems. Annals of the South African Museum. VOLUME XXVI. Page 334

[Klipspringer]

Largespine Millipede Zinophora sp, possibly Z. similis
Class Diplopoda. Order Spirostreptida. Family Harpagophoridae. Subfamily Harpagophorinae. Tribe Harpagophorini

Marloth Park © Richprins


Order Spirostreptida (Common Millipedes)
Body surface smooth, cuticle hardened.
Body with free sternites, lacking lateral projections, adult animals with more than 40 segments, eye patches ovoid or subtriangular; ozopores on each body segment from segment 5 or 6 onwards; gonopods retracted inside body cavity.
Spirostreptida millipedes are well represented throughout the Southern African subregion and comprise three families, the Harpagophoridae, Odontopygidae and Spirostreptidae. They are sexually dimorphic, with males smaller and more slender than females.
Spirostreptida millipedes are seasonally active and during the rainy months are particularly conspicuous in the dry, savannah habitats of Southern Africa. Surface activity is related to feeding and reproduction.

Reproduction
Millipedes are polygynandrous. Males initiate copulation by approaching females from behind and moving towards the head along the dorsal surface. In most Spirostreptida species, the mails coils his body around the female. Mate recognition is believed to be the consequence of a random walk, and based on a combination of tactile and chemical cue. In the Spirostreptidae the onset of copulation is associated with females attaching their mouthparts to species-specific prefemoral projections at the base of the male's first pair of legs.
Gonopores are paired structures that occur on the third body segment, just behind the second pair of legs. In females, they open into paired vulvae that are attached to the base of the second leg pair. In males they terminate in penes from which sperm are released. In addition to gonopores, males bear a pair of structurally complex intromittent genitalia called gonopods on their seventh body segment. These structures are normally drawn into the body so that only their distal ends are visible.
Sperm are translocated via the gonopods from the penes to the vulvae where they are stored.


Harpagophoridae (Spineplate Millipedes)
Medium to extremely large species
Anal segment extended to form an obvious spine
The millipede family Harpagophoridae is not only found in Africa, but also occurs in Southeast Asia and the East Indies. The family is represented in Africa by the following genera: Poratophilus Silvestri, 1897 (two species); Harpagophora Attems, 1909 (six species); Zinophora Chamberlin, 1927 (21 species); Apoctenophora Hoffman & Howell, 1982 (four species), and Metaphora Redman, 2003 (one species).

Genus Zinophora Chamberlin, 1927
The most widely distributed and speciose genus of Harpagophoridae in Africa is Zinophora, which ranges from the Western Cape (South Africa) and Namibia in the southwest, to Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi and Tanzania in the east. It is largely restricted to the savannah biome, but some species are adapted to rainforest conditions and others to the grassland biome. The genus includes 19 named species, of which 16 are from Africa south of the Zambezi and Kunene rivers.
Diagnosis: Telopodite with one or two simple femoral processes, where two spines present these of similar size. Apical elements comprising three components: the pectinophore, thumb and second lamella. Thumb narrow and falcate, or a saucer-shaped, laminate plate broadening apically, curving away from other apical elements. Distal ends of telocoxites complexly lobed. Prefemora of first legs not touching medially and syncoxosternum without suture.

Z. similis is common in the lowveld and the Kruger National Park.
This species aestivates in the deep interiors of large termite mounds.

Links:
https://bioone.org/journals/african-inv ... .0112.full
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10. ... 6.11447346
http://the-eis.com/elibrary/sites/defau ... Attems.pdf
https://bioone.org/journals/african-inv ... .0207.full
https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/ ... ertebrates