I had heard about these Millipedes in Thailand but had never actually seen one in real life till the other day when i walking through some scrub land in a park and i saw this long reddish brown worm like insect moving very slowly just up ahead of me at first i thought it might have been a small baby snake till i got up closer and it didn't scoot of like a snake would.
Millipedes are like a worm like insect with numerous legs they are known as the "Thousand Legs Worm" There first pair of legs behind there head are slightly modified for grasping food and piercing into their prey so they can't get away... dinner time 🤣
Millipedes are anything between 200 and 300 mm long and 1-1.5 cm wide and are mostly red brownish in color. I am not really sure if the Millipedes fall into the same family as a Caterpillar but they do have a lot of similarities so i am going to enter the Millipede as a insect because i do feel it needs some mention and been so unusual looking with all it's little legs and texture i reckon it's a beautiful looking creature.
Millipedes move very slowly even though they have some many legs they feed on decaying leave and plants and also suck on plant fluids besides eating other small insects. Millipedes can though become quite a garden or household pest by them living in your garden they can certainly eat away your plants and cause severe damage to emergent seedlings.
Generally Millipedes are completely harmless to humans if left alone but if annoyed to defend themselves they do let out a variety of chemicals secreted from there pores along there body which can give you a nasty rash so to be safe let them be and avoid contact with them.
When a Millipede is disturbed or frightened they will roll themselves up into a tight ball but i don't understand how that's going to save them you could still step on it and crush it...lol 🤣
Did you know ....that freshly hatched millipedes only have 6 legs? Millipedes get more and more legs and body segments each time they molt. As their skeleton is very inflexible, they have to molt a lot of times some species even spend as much as 10 percent of their life molting ... amazing mother nature you learn some thing every day 🙂
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