I found this little fellow in the leaf litter while planting a new garden space and thought to share some pictures.
Millipedes are detritivores that eat decaying plant matter and because of that can often be found in moist areas like leaf litter, mulch and under rocks and rotting logs. These creatures are mostly harmless to humans and generally curl up when threatened, but some tropical species can secrete a noxious substance that burns if it gets into the eyes.
Millipede is formed from the Latin root words milli ("thousand") and ped ("foot"). Members of the Class Diplopoda are broken down into 14 Orders. The name Diplopoda comes from the Greek diplous (διπλους)("double" ) and pous (πους) ("foot, leg").
This particular millipede likely hails from the Order Spirobolida which contains over 900 described species of mostly tropical millipedes. I won’t even begin to guess what species it was, but it was about 11 centimeters in length and quite pretty (if you appreciate bugs like I do). If you can determine which species this may be, please comment on this post!
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