Kenya camping:About Millipede

They are generally black or brown in color. Although there are a few colored species. The most obvious feature is its number of legs. Having very many short legs makes millipedes rather slow, but they powerful borrowers with their legs and body length moving in a wavelike pattern, they easily force their way underground head first. They also seem to have some engineering ability reinforcing the tunnel by rearranging the particles around it. Their bodies have segmented which makes them move in a wave –like form.

The head of a millipede is typically rounded above and flattened below and bear large mandibles. The body is flattened or cylindrical with a single chit nous plate above one at each side and two or three on the underside. The plates are typically hard being impregnated with calcium salts. Because they lack waxy cuticle, millipedes are susceptible to water loss and must spend most of their time in moist or humid environment.

Unlike centipedes and other similar animals each segment bears two pair of legs, rather than just one. This is because each is actually formed by the fusion of the embryonic segments. In some millipedes the last few segments may be legless, the final segments bears a telson.

Millipedes breathe through two pairs of spiracles on the sides. Each opens into internal pouch and connects to a system of tracheae. The heart runs the entire length of the body with a aorta stretching into the head. The excretory organs are two pairs of tubules located near the mid part of the gut.

The head contains a pair of sensory organs. These are just found posterior and lateral to the antennae and are shaped as small and oval rings at the base of the antennae.

Most millipedes are herbivorous and feed on decomposing vegetations or organic matters mixed with soil a few species are omnivorous or carnivorous and may prey on small anthropoids such as insects or on earthworms. Some species have piercing mouth parts that allow them to feed on plant juices.

  

Male millipedes can be differentiated from female millipedes by the presence of one or pairs of legs modified into gonopods. These modified legs which are usually on the seven segment are used to transfer sperm packets to the female during copulation.

The genital openings are located on the third segment and are accompanied in the male by one or two penises which deposit the sperm packets onto the gonopods.

Females lay between ten and three hundred eggs at a time, depending on species simply deposits the eggs mostly in soil or organic matters. But some construct nest linked with dried excretes. The young hutches after a few weeks and typically have three pairs of legs followed by up to four legless segments. Millipedes live from hone to ten years depending on species.

Due to their lack of speed and their inability to bite or sting, millipedes primary defense mechanism is to curl into a tight coil protecting their delicate legs inside armored body exterior. Most species also emit poisonous liquid secretions gas through microscopic pores along the sides of their bodies as a secondary defense.

This chemical brew is fairly harmless to human being, usually causing only minor effects on the skin. The main effect discoloration but other effect may also include pain, itching and occasionally cracked skin. Eye irritation and potentially more severe effects and thoroughly wash with water and go for further treatment, mainly to relive the pain.

Peter K. Philip

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