Keeping it safe. Staying at home. But look at what I found in my woodpile.
It has probably been a while since you thought about millipedes, so let me do it for you.
And no fear, millipedes are vegetarians, more specific, as a rule they are detritivores that eat the detritus or all the organic material that falls to the ground such as leaves.
I found this interesting colony feeding with their young in a pile of rotting wood near my driveway. It is a social millipede, probably Brachycybe lecontii or at least that's the best educated guess of my favorite local naturalist Nick Stahlman. They are also known as feather millipedes and it has been documented that the males "man-up" to protect the eggs, we assume while the females trundle about to lay additional clutches.
You do not think of an invertebrate as being caring and protective, but here you are. Ta-da!
This millipede species also feeds on fungi growing on rotting wood making them fungivores, a comfortable niche since most things wouldn't bother.
Millipedes are one of the oldest groups of land living animals on Earth with a lineage that goes back over 350 million years and it is somewhat reassuring to know that good parenting skills have been around for some time.
Thank you, Nick!
Author of Natural Histories, Ghost Birds and Ephemeral by Nature all published by the University of Tennessee Press.
•
No comments:
Post a Comment