16-10-25 : T7

Platerodrilus is a genus of beetles of the family Lycidae. They commonly appear in the literature under the name Duliticola, which is an obsolete junior synonym.

The females retain a larval form as adults (larviform females) and are about 40–80 mm in length. The females and larvae have a flattened, dark body with large scales over the head, resembling trilobites, hence the informal names trilobite beetle, trilobite larva or Sumatran trilobite larva, it feeds on rotting wood, fungi, slime molds, and other small organisms that help break down decaying matter.

Males are much smaller between 6.9–9 mm, resemble other lycid beetles, and likely feed on nectar for energy to fly and mate. Species are found in tropical forests of India and Southeast Asia.

Platerodrilus ngi is a species of net-winged beetle (Lycidae) which as with other members of the genus, is considered a trilobite beetle.

This common name refers to the larviform female's supposed resemblance to the extinct trilobites, in contrast, male trilobite beetles appear similar to other Lycids, being an extreme example of sexual dimorphism.

P. ngi is known for its female form, are wingless which remains in a larval state throughout its life, appearing flattened with orange protrusions and the ability to retract its head like a tortoise and are often found on fallen logs after heavy rains, when threatened it can retract their heads and freeze or curl up.

Male Platerodrilus ngi are small, winged, and have a traditional beetle appearance, contrasting sharply with the large, larval-like females. The males are around 6.9-9 mm in length and have a body covered in dense, short pubescence (setae).

They are typically dark brown to black, the head, prothorax, mesoscutellum, and the basal two-thirds of the elytra are dark red.

P. ngi was described in 2014 on the basis of a specimen collected in Singapore (the holotype) along with a number of other specimens from both Singapore and Malaysia Pahang.

The holotype, a male, was recovered from the Bukit Timah and Central Water Catchment locality. Morphological comparisons found P. ngi to belong in the same clade with P. major, and thus belongs within its species group.

Platerodrilus ngi is diagnosed by dark red coloration present on the pronotum and the "humeral two thirds of its elytra" which is distinct from another species in the same species group, P. atronotatus. Additional differences in the antennomeres and phallus further differentiate the two species.

Comparison within Male and Female Platerodrilus ngi. Male are fully metamorphosed beetles, while females remain in their larval form throughout their lives, they retain their larval morphology as adults, a trait known as neoteny.

This specie Platerodrilus ngi capture here had a length of approx 55cm and body width of approx 10cm, it is named after Peter Ng, director of the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum.

Phylum : Arthropoda

Class : Insecta

Order : Coleoptera

Suborder : Polyphaga

Infraorder : Elateriformia

Family : Lycidae

Genus : Platerodrilus

Species : P. ngi

Binomial name : Platerodrilus ngi

Bocak & Masek, 2014

T15 : 30-08-25

Pompelon marginata, a day-flying moth species found in Southeast Asia, including Singapore. They often are spotted resting on wild cinnamon trees.

Larva of Pompelon marginata is ivory white in colour with scattered black markings, a stout rectangular body, and a black first thoracic segment. This caterpillar feed exclusively on plants in the genus Cinnamomum. Each subspecies having a specific species that they feed on. 

In Singapore, they have been observed on Cinnamomum iners (wild cinnamon), while in Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo, they feed on Cinnamomum verum. When disturbed, the caterpillars can contract and squeeze tiny droplets of liquid from their spiked bodies as a Defense Mechanism.

A sting from the Pompelon marginata caterpillar, like other stinging caterpillars, occurs when its urticating hairs or spines, which contain irritating toxins, embed in the skin. Symptoms typically include immediate pain, a burning sensation, and a rash.

A raised, itchy rash, sometimes accompanied by wheals (hives), can develop at the site of contact. Each individual immune system is different. Some people may experience more severe reactions, including swelling, nausea, or even difficulty breathing, especially if the hairs or toxins are inhaled.

First Aid and Treatment from the sting.

1 : Gently apply tape to the affected area and pull it off to remove the stinging hairs or spines. Repeat as needed till is clear off.

2 : Wash the sting site with soap and water.

3 : Place an ice pack or cold compress on the affected area to help soothe the pain.

4 : Apply calamine lotion or a paste made from baking soda and water to relieve itching, take pain relievers and oral antihistamines can help manage itching and burning.

Contact a healthcare provider immediately if you experience any of the following :

Severe Reactions : Intense or spreading pain, severe swelling, nausea, or difficulty breathing.

Blistering : If the sting site develops severe blistering.

Unusual Symptoms : Any other concerning symptoms that develop after contact with the caterpillar.

P. marginata is distributed throughout Southeast Asia, including Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Sumatra, Borneo, Sulawesi, Philippines and Singapore.

Phylum : Arthropoda

Class : Insecta

Order : Lepidoptera

Family : Zygaenidae

Genus : Pompelon

Walker, 1854

Species : P. marginata (Larva)

Binomial name : Pompelon marginata

Guérin-Meneville, 1843

Synonyms :

Gynautocera marginata Guérin-Méneville, 1843

Pompelon philippinensis H. Druce, 1891

Pompelon anethussa Druce, 1891

Sedim forest 22-25-08-24

Probably a introduced species. Spirostreptida is an order of long, cylindrical millipedes. There are approximately 1000 described species, making Spirostreptida the third largest order of millipedes after Polydesmida and Chordeumatida.

Spirostreptida are generally large, long and cylindrical with 30 to 90 body rings. Eyes are present in most. This order contains the longest giant African millipedes of the genus Archispirostreptus that may exceed 30 centimetres (12 in).

Spirostreptida contains mainly tropical species, and occurs in Africa, Southern Asia to Japan, Australia, and the Western Hemisphere from the United States to Argentina.

Orthoporus is a genus of spirostreptid millipedes, containing around 80 species, distributed from the southern United States to Brazil and Argentina.

Orthoporus ornatus (also known as the desert millipede) is a North American species of millipede in the family Spirostreptidae that can be found in the U.S. states of Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, and as far south as the Mexican state of San Luis Potosí.

The desert millipede has many legs and body segments. The head, which is the first body segment, has a paired organ called the Organ of Tömösváry. This is a sensory organ located at the base of each of the antennae. For every body segment there are two pairs of legs. Desert millipedes shed every time they add a new body segment.

They are dark brownish coloured, but can sometimes be yellow. In fact, in every state the species look different. The antennae are located near the organs of Tömösváry.

The species feed on both living and dead organic material and it prefer sunshine but can be seen on summer rainy days as well.

A disturbed Orthoporus ornatus may curl into a coil and release a toxic substance that is located on all sides of its body. ​O. ornatus can live more than ten years, the species feed on shrubs of Ephedra, which grows in Jornada del Muerto, and on Salsola that grows in Albuquerque.

Orthoporus ornatus inhabits deep, damp soil of desert ecosystems, residing in small channels and voids in the soil. The soil contains abundant food sources as well as acts as protection from above ground biotic or abiotic effects such as predation, weather, and ultraviolet radiation.

In general, this millipede lives in a desert ecosystem where there are abundant rocks, shrubs, damp soil and other tree trunks.

Orthoporus ornatus is a slow-moving organism. It is mostly nocturnal, however, it emerges after rainy periods in the early mornings when the soil is moist. It spends most of its time in self-dug burrows. Once the soil is dried up from the desert sun it will go back into the deep soil.

The desert millipede is a very simple creature that will keep to itself unless bothered or feels threatened. It will curl up into a ball, or coil, when it is disturbed and sometime it may even release a noxious substance out from the side of its body or more specifically, through glands that are on top of its legs.

This liquid smells and tastes bad. It is toxic to anything that might eat it. This liquid can irritate the skin of a human and will definitely irritate the eyes.

Phylum : Arthropoda

Subphylum : Myriapoda

Class : Diplopoda

Order : Spirostreptida

Family : Spirostreptidae

Genus : Orthoporus

Species : O. ornatus

Binomial name : Orthoporus ornatus

(Girard, 1853)

Colobognatha is a clade (formally considered a subterclass) of helminthomorph millipedes containing four orders: Platydesmida, Polyzoniida, Siphonocryptida, and Siphonophorida.

The Colobognatha are united by several shared traits (synapomorphies).

Males have two pairs of simple, leg-like gonopods, consisting of the rear leg pair of body segment 7 and the foreword-most leg pair of segment 8.

They possess tubular defensive glands that open on the sides of the body, and lack a palp-like structure on their gnathochilaria.

Other traits found in colobognathans, but not exclusively, include a distinctly narrow head, lack of Tömösváry organs, and no more than two pairs of ocelli.

Siphonophorida (Greek for "tube bearer") is an order of millipedes containing two families and over 100 species.

Common name : sucking millipedes. Members of the order Siphonophorida are thin, extremely elongated millipedes that resemble Polyzoniida millipedes by the presence of a semicircular cross-section (dorsally convex and ventrally flattened) and anteriorly pointed head, reduced sucking mouthparts, and short, stout antennae.

They differ from polyzoniids by their lack of eyes. These pale yellow-brown coloured millipedes often possess a large number of body segments (180 to 190), but rarely achieve a length greater than 1 or 2 cm.

The siphonophorid, Illacme plenipes, holds the current record for most legs in an extant arthropod (750 legs) and the most segments (192) in a millipede.

Little is known of the mating behaviour of sucking millipedes, but the male gonopods on trunk segment VII enable the transfer of sperm into the female gonopore.

Females of some species lays eggs in groups in a chamber in soil or leaf letter, protecting them by covering them with their bodies. The young hatch from the egg with four pairs of legs. Body segments and legs are added at later moults until the full adult complement is attained.

Sucking millipedes have small, triangular heads that contain modified mouthparts, which enable them to pierce algae and plants, the fluids are then sucked into the mouth with a strong pumping action exerted by powerful muscles.

Sucking millipedes live in leaf litter, in soil or under logs in moist forested regions. They use their triangular heads to push into crevices in soil and logs.

Millipedes in the order Siphonophorida are long and worm-like, reaching up to 36 millimetres (1.4 in) in length and up to 190 body segments. Eyes are absent, and in many species the head is elongated into a long beak, with mandibles highly reduced.

The beak may serve in a suctorial function. The body has a dense covering of fine setae. Each body segment consists of a dorsal tergite, two lateral pleurites, and ventral sternite, which are unfused.

The male reproductive appendages (gonopods) are simple and leg-like, consisting of the ninth and 10th leg pairs.

Siphonophorida occurs from southwestern USA to Brazil and Peru in the western hemisphere, as well as South Africa, India, southeast Asia and Australia.

The oldest fossil of the group is from the Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian) aged Burmese amber, assignable to the extant genus Siphonophora.

Two families are traditionally recognized. Differences between the two families include antennae and head structure: the large family Siphonophoridae, with over 100 species, has elongate beak-like mouthparts, and straight antennae with sensory pits on the fifth and sixth antennal segments ("antennomeres)".

The family Siphonorhinidae, with only around 10 species, lacks the beak-like mouthparts, and has geniculate (elbowed) antennae lacking sensory pits on the fifth and sixth antennomere.

The siphonorhinid genus Nematozonium with two species, is sometimes placed in its own monotypic family, Nematozoniidae.

Phylum : Arthropoda

Subphylum : Myriapoda

Class : Diplopoda

Subclass : Chilognatha

Infraclass : Helminthomorpha

Clade : Colobognatha

Order : Siphonophorida

Newport, 1844

Family : Siphonophoridae

Scientific name : Siphonophoridae

Families :

Siphonophoridae

Siphonorhinidae

Synonyms :

Californizoniinae Verhoeff, 1941

Mandai T15

Pseudospirobolellidae is a family of round-backed millipedes of the order Spirobolida. The family includes 12 species belonging to seven genera.

Pseudospirobolellus avernus, is a species of pill millipede in the family Pseudospirobolellidae. It has a very similar appearance to the Rusty Millipede but is dark-brown in color and has pure white antennae. The millipede is also smaller in size at around 2cm and can sometimes be seen on the trees around the botanical garden.

The eggs of this species are often spread through gardening soil so the millipede frequently appears on balconies and under potted plants.

It is found in Comoros, Samoa, Sulawesi, Vietnam, Java and South Asia. It is introduced to Caribbean Islands.

​Millipedes are arthropods belonging to the class Diplopoda, characterized by their elongated, segmented bodies and numerous legs. They are commonly mistaken for centipedes, but they are distinct in several ways.

Millipedes are not insects, they are part of the Myriapoda subphylum, which includes centipedes as well.

Millipedes are found in various terrestrial habitats worldwide, with a preference for damp and dark environments like leaf litter, rotting wood, and soil.

They are particularly common in tropical and temperate regions and are detritivores, they feed on decaying plant material and organic matter. They play an essential ecological role by helping to break down dead plant material and returning nutrients to the soil.

Millipedes have various defense mechanisms to deter predators. Many species produce toxic or irritating chemicals as a defense, which can cause skin irritation or even harm if ingested.

Some millipedes also roll into a protective coil when threatened, presenting a tough, armored exterior.

Millipedes reproduce sexually, with males depositing sperm packets, which are then picked up by females. After mating, females typically lay eggs underground burrows or in the soil. The young millipedes, known as nymphs, hatch from the eggs and undergo a series of molts as they grow and develop.

Millipedes contribute to nutrient cycling in ecosystems by breaking down dead plant matter. Their activities enhance soil quality and can benefit plants by increasing nutrient availability.

While millipedes are generally harmless to humans, some species can release defensive secretions that may cause skin irritation or allergic reactions in sensitive individuals.

Why do some milipede glow under ultraviolet ?

Biofluorescence is the absorption and reemission of light from living organisms.

Fluorescent organisms have proteins built into their skin or other tissues that absorb energy from sunlight and reemit it as a different color.

That glow likely comes from a protein in the millipede exoskeleton that absorbs visible light and reemits it in hues of green, yellow and blue.

Biofluorescence and bioluminescence are two naturally occurring phenomena that people can observe in certain creatures that have evolved to produce or emit light.

While these capabilities may seem very similar, biofluorescence and bioluminescence have unique characteristics that make them quite distinct from one another.

Biofluorescence occurs when higher energy wavelengths of light (e.g., ultra-violet or blue light) are absorbed and subsequently reemitted at lower energy wavelengths in living organisms, resulting in a glow with brilliant fluorescent colors including blues, greens, and reds.

Three types of luminescence have been reported in living organisms: bioluminescence (BL), ultraweak chemiluminescence and biofluorescence (FL).

In millipedes, both BL and FL have been reported in Motyxia sequoiae and related Xystodesmidae species.

In living organisms, three types of luminescence have been reported: (1) bioluminescence, a special case of enzymatically catalyzed chemiluminescence for communicative purposes, (2) ultraweak chemiluminescence resulting from side-reactions of the oxidative metabolism and (3) fluorescence, also referred as biofluorescence, a kind of photoluminescence which depends on excitation by light.

Biofluorescence, has been reported for several classes of organisms, including mainly marine organisms with fluorescent proteins (FPs), arthropods, amphibians, reptiles, birds and even mammals

Bioluminescence occurs in several organisms, both marine and terrestrial. It arises from exothermic oxidative reactions in which compounds generally called luciferins are oxidized by molecular oxygen in the presence of enzymes called luciferases or photoproteins, producing peroxidic intermediates, whose spontaneous cleavage preferentially yield singlet (fluorescent state) excited products that decay, emitting light. Among arthropods, it occurs in marine crustaceans, millipedes and mainly insects.

Bioluminescence is a chemical process in which an organism emits light. It’s considered a “cold light”, which means only a small percentage of the light contains heat, unlike the light produced by fire or the sun’s rays.

The light is produced by a compound called luciferin, which releases light when it reacts with oxygen. All bioluminescent animals contain luciferin, but some (like tiny dinoflagellate plankton) produce their own, where others (like squid and some fish) absorb bacteria that contain luciferin.

Bioluminescence involves a chemical reaction inside the animal’s cells. For some animals, those cells are located in a special light organ called a photophore that can look like a spotlight. Other organisms take on a more general glow.

The reaction involves two molecules: luciferin and luciferase. When they react with oxygen, it produces light. That light can be red, yellow, green, blue, or even violet. But in the ocean, it’s usually blue-green.

Animals control when they light up by controlling the movement of oxygen into cells containing luciferin and luciferase. Not all animals make their own luciferin or luciferase. Some get these molecules by eating other bioluminescent organisms.

Some animals have a special symbiotic relationship with bioluminescent bacteria. The bacteria live in the host, where they are sheltered and fed by the host animal. In return, they glow when the host needs light.

The chemical reaction that results in bioluminescence requires two unique chemicals: luciferin and either luciferase or photoprotein.

Luciferin is the compound that actually produces light. In a chemical reaction, luciferin is called the substrate.

Some bioluminescent organisms produce (synthesize) luciferin on their own and some bioluminescent organisms do not synthesize luciferin. Instead, they absorb it through other organisms, either as food or in a symbiotic relationship.

Luciferase is an enzyme. An enzyme is a chemical (called a catalyst) that interacts with a substrate to affect the rate of a chemical reaction. The interaction of the luciferase with oxidized (oxygen-added) luciferin creates a byproduct, called oxyluciferin. More importantly, the chemical reaction creates light.

Most bioluminescent reactions involve luciferin and luciferase. Some reactions, however, do not involve an enzyme (luciferase). These reactions involve a chemical called a photoprotein.

Photoproteins combine with luciferins and oxygen, but need another agent, often an ion of the element calcium, to produce light.

Bioluminescence is used by living things to hunt prey, defend against predators, find mates, and execute other vital activities.

​

Phylum : Arthropoda

Class : Diplopoda

Order : Spirobolida

Family : Pseudospirobolellidae

Genus : Pseudospirobolellus

Species : P. avernus

Binomial name : Pseudospirobolellus avernus

(Butler, 1876)

Leeches are segmented parasitic or predatory worms that comprise the subclass Hirudinea within the phylum Annelida.

They are closely related to the oligochaetes, which include the earthworm, and like them have soft, muscular segmented bodies that can lengthen and contract.

Both groups are hermaphrodites and have a clitellum, but leeches typically differ from the oligochaetes in having suckers at both ends and in having ring markings that do not correspond with their internal segmentation.

The body is muscular and relatively solid, and the coelom, the spacious body cavity found in other annelids, is reduced to small channels.

The majority of leeches live in freshwater habitats, while some species can be found in terrestrial or marine environments.

The best-known species, such as the medicinal leech, Hirudo medicinalis, are hematophagous, attaching themselves to a host with a sucker and feeding on blood, having first secreted the peptide hirudin to prevent the blood from clotting.

The jaws used to pierce the skin are replaced in other species by a proboscis which is pushed into the skin.

A minority of leech species are predatory, mostly preying on small invertebrates. The eggs are enclosed in a cocoon, which in aquatic species is usually attached to an underwater surface; members of one family, Glossiphoniidae, exhibit parental care, the eggs being brooded by the parent.

In terrestrial species, the cocoon is often concealed under a log, in a crevice or buried in damp soil. Almost seven hundred species of leech are currently recognised, of which some hundred are marine, ninety terrestrial and the remainder freshwater.

Leeches have been used in medicine from ancient times until the 19th century to draw blood from patients.

In modern times, leeches find medical use in treatment of joint diseases such as epicondylitis and

osteoarthritis, extremity vein diseases.

And in microsurgery, while hirudin is used as an anticoagulant drug to treat blood-clotting disorders. The leech appears in the biblical Book of Proverbs as an archetype of insatiable greed. The term "leech" is used to characterise a person who takes without giving, living at the expense of others.

Acanthobdellidea (primitive leeches) and the Euhirudinea (true leeches). The Euhirudinea are divided into the proboscis-bearing Rhynchobdellida and the rest, including some jawed species, the "Arhynchobdellida", without a proboscis.

The phylogenetic tree of the leeches and their annelid relatives is based on molecular analysis (2019) of DNA sequences. Both the former classes "Polychaeta" (bristly marine worms) and "Oligochaeta" (including the earthworms) are paraphyletic: in each case the complete groups (clades) would include all the other groups shown below them in the tree.

The Branchiobdellida are sister to the leech clade Hirudinida, which approximately corresponds to the traditional subclass Hirudinea.

Leeches show a remarkable similarity to each other in morphology, very different from typical annelids which are cylindrical with a fluid-filled space, the coelom (body cavity).

In leeches, most of the coelom is filled with botryoidal tissue, a loose connective tissue composed of clusters of cells of mesodermal origin. The remaining body cavity has been reduced to four slender longitudinal channels.

Typically, the body is dorso-ventrally flattened and tapers at both ends. Longitudinal and circular muscles in the body wall are supplemented by diagonal muscles, giving the leech the ability to adopt a large range of body shapes and show great flexibility.

Most leeches have a sucker at both the anterior (front) and posterior (back) ends, but some primitive leeches have a single sucker at the back.

Like most annelids, with a few exceptions like Sipuncula, Echiura and Diurodrilus, the leech is a segmented animal, but unlike other annelids, the segmentation is masked by secondary external ring markings (annuli). The number of annulations varies, both between different regions of the body and between species. In one species, the body surface is divided into 102 annuli.

All leech species, however, have 32 segments, called somites, (34 if two head segments, which have different organization, are counted). Of these segments, the first five are designated as the head and include the anterior brain, several ocelli (eyespots) dorsally and the sucker ventrally. The following 21 mid-body segments each contain a nerve ganglion, and between them contain two reproductive organs, a single female gonopore and nine pairs of testes. The last seven segments contain the posterior brain and are fused to form the animal's tail sucker.

The septa that separates the body segments—and the mesenteries which in turn separates each segment into a left and right half—in the majority of annelids, have been lost in leeches except for the primitive genus Acanthobdella, which still have some septa and mesenteries.

The body wall consists of a cuticle, an epidermis and a thick layer of fibrous connective tissue in which are embedded the circular muscles, the diagonal muscles and the powerful longitudinal muscles. There are also dorso-ventral muscles. 

In leeches the original blood vascular system has been lost and replaced by the modified coelom known as the haemocoelomic system, and the coelomic fluid, called the haemocoelomic fluid, has taken over the role as blood.

The haemocoelomic channels run the full length of the body, the two main ones being on either side. Part of the lining epithelium consists of chloragogen cells which are used for the storage of nutrients and in excretion.

There are 10 to 17 pairs of metanephridia (excretory organs) in the mid-region of the leech. From these, ducts typically lead to a urinary bladder, which empties to the outside at a nephridiopore.

Leeches are hermaphrodites, with the male reproductive organs, the testes, maturing first and the ovaries later. In hirudinids, a pair will line up with the clitellar regions in contact, with the anterior end of one leech pointing towards the posterior end of the other; this results in the male gonopore of one leech being in contact with the female gonopore of the other. The penis passes a spermatophore into the female gonopore and sperm is transferred to, and probably stored in, the vagina.

Some jawless leeches (Rhynchobdellida) and proboscisless leeches (Arhynchobdellida) lack a penis, and in these, sperm is passed from one individual to another by hypodermic injection.

The leeches intertwine and grasp each other with their suckers. A spermatophore is pushed by one through the integument of the other, usually into the clitellar region. The sperm is liberated and passes to the ovisacs, either through the coelomic channels or interstitially through specialist "target tissue" pathways.

Some time after copulation, the small, relatively yolkless eggs are laid. In most species, an albumin-filled cocoon is secreted by the clitellum and receives one or more eggs as it passes over the female gonopore.

In the case of the North American Erpobdella punctata, the clutch size is about five eggs, and some ten cocoons are produced. Each cocoon is fixed to a submerged object, or in the case of terrestrial leeches, deposited under a stone or buried in damp soil.

The cocoon of Hemibdella soleae is attached to a suitable fish host. The glossiphoniids brood their eggs, either by attaching the cocoon to the substrate and covering it with their ventral surface, or by securing the cocoon to their ventral surface, and even carrying the newly hatched young to their first meal.

When breeding, most marine leeches leave their hosts and become free-living in estuaries. Here they produce their cocoons, after which the adults of most species die. When the eggs hatch, the juveniles seek out potential hosts when these approach the shore. Leeches mostly have an annual or biannual life cycle.

About three quarters of leech species are parasites that feed on the blood of a host, while the remainder are predators. Leeches either have a pharynx that they can protrude, commonly called a proboscis, or a pharynx that they cannot protrude, which in some groups is armed with jaws.

In the proboscisless leeches, the jaws (if any) of Arhynchobdellids are at the front of the mouth, and have three blades set at an angle to each other. In feeding, these slice their way through the skin of the host, leaving a Y-shaped incision. Behind the blades is the mouth, located ventrally at the anterior end of the body. It leads successively into the pharynx, a short oesophagus, a crop (in some species), a stomach and a hindgut, which ends at an anus located just above the posterior sucker.

The stomach may be a simple tube, but the crop, when present, is an enlarged part of the midgut with a number of pairs of ceca that store ingested blood. The leech secretes an anticoagulant, hirudin, in its saliva which prevents the blood from clotting before ingestion. A mature medicinal leech may feed only twice a year, taking months to digest a blood meal.

The bodies of predatory leeches are similar, though instead of a jaw many have a protrusible proboscis, which for most of the time they keep retracted into the mouth. Such leeches are often ambush predators that lie in wait until they can strike prey with the proboscises in a spear-like fashion.

Predatory leeches feed on small invertebrates such as snails, earthworms and insect larvae. The prey is usually sucked in and swallowed whole. Some Rhynchobdellida however suck the soft tissues from their prey, making them intermediate between predators and blood-suckers.

Blood-sucking leeches use their anterior suckers to connect to hosts for feeding. Once attached, they use a combination of mucus and suction to stay in place while they inject hirudin into the hosts' blood. In general, blood-feeding leeches are non host-specific, and do little harm to their host, dropping off after consuming a blood meal.

Some marine species however remain attached until it is time to reproduce. If present in great numbers on a host, these can be debilitating, and in extreme cases, cause death.

Leeches are unusual in that they do not produce certain digestive enzymes such as amylases, lipases or endopeptidases. A deficiency of these enzymes and of B complex vitamins is compensated for by enzymes and vitamins produced by endosymbiotic microflora.

In Hirudo medicinalis, these supplementary factors are produced by an obligatory mutualistic relationship with the bacterial species, Aeromonas veronii.

Non-bloodsucking leeches, such as Erpobdella octoculata, are host to more bacterial symbionts. In addition, leeches produce intestinal exopeptidases which remove amino acids from the long protein molecules one by one, possibly aided by proteases from endosymbiotic bacteria in the hindgut.

This evolutionary choice of exopeptic digestion in Hirudinea distinguishes these carnivorous clitellates from oligochaetes, and may explain why digestion in leeches is so slow.

A leech's nervous system is formed of a few large nerve cells. Their large size makes leeches convenient as model organisms for the study of invertebrate nervous systems.

The main nerve centre consists of the cerebral ganglion above the gut and another ganglion beneath it, with connecting nerves forming a ring around the pharynx a little way behind the mouth.

A nerve cord runs backwards from this in the ventral coelomic channel, with 21 pairs of ganglia in segments six to 26. In segments 27 to 33, other paired ganglia fuse to form the caudal ganglion. Several sensory nerves connect directly to the cerebral ganglion; there are sensory and motor nerve cells connected to the ventral nerve cord ganglia in each segment.

Leeches have between two and ten pigment spot ocelli, arranged in pairs towards the front of the body. There are also sensory papillae arranged in a lateral row in one annulation of each segment.

Each papilla contains many sensory cells. Some rhynchobdellids have the ability to change colour dramatically by moving pigment in chromatophore cells; this process is under the control of the nervous system but its function is unclear as the change in hue seems unrelated to the colour of the surroundings.

Leeches can detect touch, vibration, movement of nearby objects, and chemicals secreted by their hosts; freshwater leeches crawl or swim towards a potential host standing in their pond within a few seconds.

Species that feed on warm-blooded hosts move towards warmer objects. Many leeches avoid light, though some blood feeders move towards light when they are ready to feed, presumably increasing the chances of finding a host.

Leech vs. tick

Ticks are similar to leeches only in that they both can feed on blood.

But unlike leeches, ticks belong to the spider family and only attach to the skin. Though most leech bites are external, it’s possible for a leech to attach internally. Neither leeches nor ticks are insects.

Leeches are parasites that belong to the same family of organisms as worms. They can have both male and female reproductive organs, which means they can reproduce sexually, fertilize themselves, or both.

There are more than 600 species Trusted Source of leeches. You can encounter them most often in grasses or fresh water, though some species live in marine water. As parasites, they need to feed off a host in order to survive. Many leech species are sanguinivorous, which means that they feed on blood. Once they attach themselves to a human, they’ll begin to suck their blood.

Leeches can also expand up to 10 times their size while feeding, allowing them to consume a lot of your blood at one time.

How do I recognize a leech?

Leeches are long, tube-shaped animals. They’re similar in appearance to worms and can be anywhere from just a few millimeters to up to 20 inches long.

Most leeches have visible eyes on the top of their bodies and round mouths with several rows of teeth. Leeches can be spotted, striped, or solidly colored. They have two suckers on each end of their bodies. Leeches use their suckers to grasp, feed, and move around.

Additionally, leeches are generally:

• flat

• wide

• segmented

• dark in color

Leeches are commonly found in freshwater lakes and tall grasses. Leech bites are generally alarming rather than dangerous, though a small percentage of people have severe allergic or anaphylactic reactions and require urgent medical care.

Symptoms of these reactions include red blotches or an itchy rash over the body, swelling around the lips or eyes, a feeling of faintness or dizziness, and difficulty in breathing.

An externally attached leech will detach and fall off on its own accord when it is satiated on blood, which may take from twenty minutes to a few hours; bleeding from the wound may continue for some time.

Bacteria, viruses, and protozoan parasites from previous blood sources can survive within a leech for months, so leeches could potentially act as vectors of pathogens. Nevertheless, only a few cases of leeches transmitting pathogens to humans have been reported.

When should I contact a doctor ?

You should contact a doctor if you can’t remove the leech yourself or if your wound becomes infected. Signs of infection include

• fever

• pain

• redness

• discharge from the wound

If you experience a mild allergic reaction, take an over-the-counter antihistamine. A severe allergy is rare, but it’s best to be on the lookout for symptoms, including:

• painful and persistent rash around the bite area

• swelling near the bite

• dizziness

• trouble breathing

Seek immediate medical attention if you have trouble breathing or feel confused, disoriented, or about to lose consciousness.

Another reason to seek medical attention is if your bleeding appears unusually heavy or prolonged, especially if you’re taking anticoagulant drugs.

How to prevent a leech bite ?

Before you enter a body of water, ask or research to learn if the water may have leeches. If yes, you may choose to avoid entering the water.

If you do enter freshwater or go walking in an area where leeches may be present, some precautions can be helpful.

• wearing anti-leech protective socks

• using a salt spray

• using insect repellants like DEPA or DEET

• timur oil

• lemon-eucalyptus extract

Use any repellant spray, salt, or oil only as a protective spray. Never put them on an attached leech.

Finding a leech on your skin can be alarming. But except in rare cases, leeches aren’t generally harmful.

You can carefully remove a leech by using your fingernail or a sheet of paper to separate the leech’s mouth from your skin. Don’t use methods like salting, burning, or drowning to remove a leech, as these can lead to infection.

Contact a medical professional if you’re unable to remove a leech, experience any signs of infection, or have an allergic reaction.

Do not remove a leech using any of the following methods. These can cause the leech to vomit blood into your wound and increase your risk of infection :

• salting

• fire

• shampoo

• bug repellant

• pulling the leech

Many leech bites can lead to itching at the affected site, as well purpura. This is not necessarily dangerous. Most leech bites are harmless. Usually, the leech can be removed easily without the need for medical attention.

But the bite can cause extended bleeding at the attachment site even after the leech is removed. This is because the saliva from leeches is an anticoagulant and interferes with the blood’s normal clotting.

In rare cases, some people may experience an allergic reaction to leech bites. People with a history of allergies or anaphylaxis need to be extra careful. Those who are taking anticoagulant medications are at risk for more prolonged bleeding after a bite.

In addition, most leeches carry the bacteria Aeromonas in their gut, which could infect the leech site. A person who has been exposed to a leech can get prophylactic antibiotics as a precaution.

​

Phylum : Annelida

Clade : Pleistoannelida

Clade : Sedentaria

Class : Clitellata

Subclass : Hirudinea

Lamarck 1818

Pulau Ubin : 13-4-24

Onychophora commonly known as velvet worms (due to their velvety texture and somewhat wormlike appearance) or more ambiguously as peripatus (after the first described genus, Peripatus), is a phylum of elongate, soft-bodied, many-legged animals.

In appearance they have variously been compared to worms with legs, caterpillars, and slugs. They prey upon other invertebrates, which they catch by ejecting an adhesive slime.

​Approximately 200 species of velvet worms have been described, although the true number of species is likely greater.

The two extant families of velvet worms are Peripatidae and Peripatopsidae.

They show a peculiar distribution, with the peripatids being predominantly equatorial and tropical, while the peripatopsids are all found south of the equator.

It is the only phylum within Animalia that is wholly endemic to terrestrial environments, at least among extant members.

Velvet worms are generally considered close relatives of the Arthropoda and Tardigrada, with which they form the proposed taxon Panarthropoda. This makes them of palaeontological interest, as they can help reconstruct the ancestral arthropod.

Only two fossil species are confidently assigned to as onychophorans: Antennipatus from the Late Carboniferous, and Cretoperipatus from the Late Cretaceous, the latter belonging to Peripatidae.

In modern zoology, they are particularly renowned for their curious mating behaviours and the bearing of live young in some species.

Velvet worms are segmented animals with a flattened cylindrical body cross-section and rows of unstructured body appendages known as oncopods or lobopods (informally: stub feet).

They reach lengths between 0.1 and 22 cm (0.04–8.66 in) depending on species, with the smallest known being Ooperipatellus nanus and the largest known is Mongeperipatus solorzanoi.

The number of leg pairs ranges from as few as 13 (in Ooperipatellus nanus) to as many as 43 (in Plicatoperipatus jamaicensis).

Their skin consists of numerous, fine transverse rings and is often inconspicuously coloured orange, red or brown, but sometimes also bright green, blue, gold or white, and occasionally patterned with other colours.

Segmentation is outwardly inconspicuous, and identifiable by the regular spacing of the pairs of legs and in the regular arrangement of skin pores, excretion organs and concentrations of nerve cells.

The individual body sections are largely unspecialised, even the head develops only a little differently from the abdominal segments.

Segmentation is apparently specified by the same gene as in other groups of animals, and is activated in each case, during embryonic development, at the rear border of each segment and in the growth zone of the stub feet.

Although onychophorans fall within the protostome group, their early development has a deuterostome trajectory, (with the mouth and anus forming separately) this trajectory is concealed by the rather sophisticated processes which occur in early development.

The stub feet that characterise the velvet worms are conical, baggy appendages of the body, which are internally hollow and have no joints.

Although the number of feet can vary considerably between species, their structure is basically very similar. Rigidity is provided by the hydrostatic pressure of their fluid contents, and movement is usually obtained passively by stretching and contraction of the animal's entire body.

However, each leg can also be shortened and bent by internal muscles. Due to the lack of joints, this bending can take place at any point along the sides of the leg.

In some species, two different organs are found within the feet :

​* Crural glands are situated at the shoulder of the legs, extending into the body cavity. They open outwards at the crural papillae—small wart-like bumps on the belly side of the leg—and secrete chemical messenger materials called pheromones.

Their name comes from the Latin cruralis meaning "of the legs.

Coxal vesicles are pouches located on the belly side of the leg, which can be everted and probably serve in water absorption. They belong to the family Peripatidae and are named from coxa, the Latin word for "hip".

On each foot is a pair of retractable, hardened (sclerotised) chitin claws, which give the taxon its scientific name : Onychophora is derived from the Ancient Greek : ονυχής, onyches, "claws"; and φέρειν, pherein, "to carry".

At the base of the claws are three to six spiny "cushions" on which the leg sits in its resting position and on which the animal walks over smooth substrates. The claws are used mainly to gain a firm foothold on uneven terrain.

Velvet worms have hydrostatic skeletons, it doesn't have hard exoskeletons like arthropods. Instead, their fluid-filled body cavities are covered in a thin skin and kept rigid by their pressurized internal liquids. They move by the alteration of fluid pressure in the limbs as they extend and contract along the body.

They have velvety, water-proof skin. Their entire bodies are covered with papillae, tiny protrusions with bristles sensitive to touch and smell. The papillae are made up of overlapping scales, which gives the velvet worm its velvety appearance. It also makes their skin water-repellant.

Velvet worms are vulnerable to dehydration. Like insects, velvet worms breathe through holes along their bodies called tracheae.

Unlike insects, velvet worms cannot close these holes to prevent water loss, so they easily dry out. For this reason, velvet worms spend most of their time hidden in moist areas in the soil, under rocks, and in rotting logs. They're most active at night and during rainy weather.

Velvet worms are ambush predators, they use slime as a weapon, hunting other small invertebrates by night.

To subdue their prey, they squirt a sticky, quick hardening slime from a pair of glands on their heads. After the prey is ensnared, the velvet worm bites into it, injecting digestive saliva that helps liquefy the insides for easier snacking.

The slime is energetically costly to make, so velvet worms will often eat any excess slime they have produced to shore up their reserves.

Eoperipatus is a Southeast Asian genus of velvet worm in the family Peripatidae. The number of legs in this genus varies within species as well as among species and ranges from 22 pairs (in E. butleri) to 25 pairs (in E. horsti and E. weldoni).

Females are usually larger than males and typically only produce young once in their lives. Most velvet worms give birth to live young. Female velvet worms can store sperm for many months before using them to fertilize their eggs.

Their gestation period can last up to 15 months in some species. Most give birth to live young, although a few species lay eggs. Young velvet worms are born fully developed and looking like miniature versions of the adults.

They vary in how they mate and how young are born, some velvet worms lay eggs, and others produce live young, but the majority undergo a process known as ovoviviparity. In this process, embryos develop inside an egg, but the egg is kept inside the mother’s body until the young are ready to hatch.

This genus exhibits lecithotrophic ovoviviparity, that is, mothers in this genus retain yolky eggs in their uteri.

The genus contains the following described species:

• Eoperipatus butleri Evans, 1901

• Eoperipatus horsti Evans, 1901

• Eoperipatus totoro Oliveira et al., 2013

• Eoperipatus weldoni Evans, 1901

Eoperipatus sumatranus (Sedgwick, 1888) is considered a nomen dubium by Oliveira et al. 2012.

First recorded in Vietnam, Eoperipatus has now been found distributed throughout South-East Asia.

An undescribed species is known to occur in Thailand. In addition, unidentified onychophorans have also been observed in Borneo and in central Vietnam, north of the known distribution of Eoperipatus totoro. These may or may not represent distinct species. These species have been hard to study as they live in cryptic environments and have low population densities.

Eoperipatus butleri is a Malaysian species of velvet worm in the Peripatidae family. This species Eoperipatus butleri was described by Richard Evans in 1901, from a single female specimen discovered by A. M. Butler in the Larut Hills of West Malaysia.

The generic name Eoperipatus is derived from an Ancient Greek combining form of ēṓs, meaning "dawn", and peripatos, meaning "walking about".

The specific name butleri is in honour of its discoverer. Although some have suggested that E. butleri is a junior synonym of E. weldoni, other authorities maintain that E. butleri is valid as a different species, citing the significant distance (over 300 km) between the type localities of these two species.

The dorsal surface is dark brown with pale spots and a darker brown mid-dorsal line extending from the first pair of oncopods (legs) to the anus.

The ventral surface is slightly lighter brown than the dorsal surface. The type specimen was 52 mm in length and 6 mm in width. The female of this species has 24 pairs of legs, but the male has only 22 leg pairs.

Phylum : Onychophora

Family : Peripatidae

Genus : Eoperipatus

Species : E. butleri

Binomial name : Eoperipatus butleri

Evans, 1901

Hammerhead worms, also known as Bipalium, are predatory flatworms characterized by their broadened, spade-shaped heads used for sensory exploration and prey capture. They primarily feed on earthworms and other soil invertebrates, utilizing their heads to detect prey and wrap around them to immobilize and digest. 

Bipalium graffi is a species of large predatory land planarian belonging to the family Geoplanidae, commonly reconized as a type of hammerhead worm or broadhead planarian first described by J.Muller in 1902.

These terrestrial flatworms feature a distinct fan or shovel shaped head. The characteristics of the head shape can be : broad, half moon and or hammerhead shaped depends on the individual species, the head  expansion is used to pin down or track prey effectively, making them efficient predators in their natural habitats.

Bipaliinae is a subfamily of land planarians found mainly in Madagascar, the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, although some species have been introduced worldwide.

The subfamily Bipaliinae is characterized by having a semilunar head that gives them the common name "hammerhead worms". The head has peripheral sensory pits on the ventral side and small peripheral eyes on the dorsal side.

Bipaliin as invasive species. Several hammerhead flatworms have become invasive, the most famous being Bipalium kewense, now in many countries in all continents except the Antarctica. 

A 2022 study used occurrence records from online databases, including iNaturalist, and climatic and soil variable to model the potential distribution of five species of hammerhead flatworms, namely B. kewense, B. adventitium, B. pennsylvaanicum, B. vagum, and Diversibipalium multilineatum. It was found that the five species could invade Southeast Asia, New Zealand, Eastern Australia, a part of South America, eastern USA, western Europe and central Africa.

Bipalium is a genus of large predatory land planarians. They are often loosely called "hammerhead worms" or "broadhead planarians" because of the distinctive shape of their head region. 

Land planarians are unique in that they possess a "creeping sole", a highly ciliated region on the ventral epidermis that helps them to creep over the substrate. Native to Asia, several species are invasive to the United States, Canada, and Europe. Some studies have begun the investigation of the evolutionary ecology of these invasive planarians.

The genus Bipalium was initially defined by Stimpson to include land planarians with the head broadened, forming a head plate. Later, in 1899, Ludwig von Graff divided it into three genera according to the shape of the head :

Bipalium : with a well-developed head plate, much broader than long, and with elongated lateral auricles.

Perocephalus : rudimentary head plate, not much broader than the body.

Placocephalus : flat head plate with a circular outline.

Bipalium species are predatory. Some species prey on earthworms, while others may also feed on mollusks. These flatworms can track their prey. When captured, earthworms begin to react to the attack, but the flatworm uses the muscles in its body, as well as sticky secretions, to attach itself to the earthworm to prevent escape. The planarians cover, or cap, the prostomium, peristomium, and anterior end to stop the violent reaction by the earthworm.

To feed on their prey, species of Bipalium often evert their pharynges from their mouths, located on the midventral portion of their bodies, and secrete enzymes that begin the digestion of the prey. The liquefied tissues are sucked into the branching gut of the flatworms by ciliary action. Reproduction in Bipalium may be asexual or sexual and all species are hermaphroditic.

Phylum : Platyhelminthes

Order : Tricladida

Family : Geoplanidae

Subfamily : Bipaliinae

Genus : Bipalium

Stimpson, 1857

Type species : Bipalium fuscatum

Stimpson, 1857

Synonyms :

Sphyrocephalus Schmarda, 1859

Dunlopea Wright, 1860

Bipaliura Stimpson, 1861

Perocephalus von Graff, 1896 (in part)

Placocephalus von Graff, 1896 (in part)

Sphaerocephalus Loman, 1888

Spirostreptida is an order of long, cylindrical millipedes. There are approximately 1000 described species, making Spirostreptida the third largest order of millipedes after Polydesmida and Chordeumatida.

Spirostreptida are generally large, long and cylindrical, with 30 to 90 body rings. Eyes are present in most. Spirostreptida contains mainly tropical species.

Like most millipede groups, they have a fragmentary fossil record. The oldest record of the group is the extinct family Electrocambalidae, which is known from the Burmese amber of Myanmar, dating to the Cenomanian stage of the Late Cretaceous around 99 million years ago, which belongs to the suborder Cambalidea.

Harpagophoridae is a family of round-backed millipedes of the order Spirostreptida. The family includes 269 species belonging to 55 genera, distributed in Africa, Southeast Asia, and the East Indies, as well as a few Indian Oceanic islands. Two subfamilies are recognized.

This white-legged giant millipede of the family Harpagophoridae emits utra violet lights and measured approximately 7cm to 8 cm long was photographed at Mandai T7 along the side road of the Nature Reserve.

Leptogoniulus sorornus, like other millipedes, plays a role in decomposing organic matter, contributing to nutrient cycling in soil ecosystems.

Phylum : Arthropoda

Subphylum : Myriapoda

Class : Diplopoda

Order : Spirostreptida

Family: Harpagophoridae

Attems, 1909

Gene : Leptogoniulus

Species : Leptogoniulus sorornus 

(Butler, 1876)

Bipalium vagum is a land planarian in the subfamily Bipaliinae. It has been accidentally introduced in the United States, Bermuda and various islands in the Caribbean and was recorded for the first time in Europe, in Italy, in 2021.

Bipalium vagum is a relatively small species of Bipalium, measuring about 25 mm (0.98 in) in length. The head varies from entirely black to dark brown with two black patches separated by a lighter ground color. The neck has a black collar interrupted only at the creeping sole. The dorsal color of the body is light brown and a broad black stripe runs longitudinally from the black collar to the posterior end. Laterally, there are two diffuse dark brown stripes.

Differently from other invasive species of Bipalium, which feed on earthworms, B. vagum seems to feed exclusively on gastropods. As it seems to be spreading throughout the Caribbean and southern United States, there is certain concern on its possible impacts on the native gastropod fauna.

This species Bipaluim vagum was found in old upper thomson road on 5th Aug 2021 during nite photography and likely this individuals were introduced possibly with imported ornamental plants.

Phylum : Platyhelminthes

Class : Rhabditophora

Order : Tricladida

Suborder : Continenticola

Family : Geoplanidae

Subfamily : Bipaliinae

Genus : Bipalium

Species:  B. vagum

Binomial name : Bipalium vagum

Jones & Sterrer, 2005

Diversibipalium is a genus of land planarians of the subfamily Bipaliinae (hammerhead flatworms). It was erected to include species lacking sufficient morphological information to allow them to be classified in the appropriate genus.

Diversibipalium rauchi , Synonym (Bipalium rauchi). Bipalium is a genus of large predatory land planarians. They are often loosely called "hammerhead worms" or "broadhead planarians" because of the distinctive shape of their head region. 

Land planarians are unique in that they possess a "creeping sole", a highly ciliated region on the ventral

epidermis that helps them to creep over the substrate.

Several species are considered as invasive to the United States and to Europe. Some studies have begun the investigation of the evolutionary ecology of these invasive planarians.

The genus Bipalium was initially defined by Stimpson to include land planarians with the head broadened, forming a head plate. Later, in 1899, Ludwig von Graff divided it into three genera according to the shape of the head.

Bipalium : with a well-developed head plate, much broader than long, and with elongated lateral auricles.

Perocephalus : rudimentary head plate, not much broader than the body.

Placocephalus : flat head plate with a circular outline.

Josef Müller, in 1902, considered that no sufficient anatomical basis existed for this distinction, and reunited them under Bipalium. Later, von Graff accepted Müller's conclusions.

Towards the end of the 20th century, Robert E. Ogren and Masaharu Kawakatsu started a series of publications called "The Land Planarian Index series" in which they reviewed and organized all taxonomic information regarding land planarians.

At first, they retained all broad-headed planarians in the genus Bipalium, but later split them into four genera based on the anatomy of the reproductive organs : Bipalium, Novibipalium, Humbertium, and Diversibipalium.

Under this scenario, the genus Bipalium is defined as containing broad-headed land planarians with simple copulatory organs, without accessory ducts or copulatory bursa, and with a fold of tissue separating the male and female exit ducts.

The name Bipalium comes from Latin bi-, “two” + pala, “shovel” or “spade”, because species in this genus resemble a pickaxe.

Bipalium species are predatory. Some species prey on earthworms, while others may also feed on mollusks. These flatworms can track their prey. When captured, earthworms begin to react to the attack, but a flatworm uses the muscles in its body, as well as sticky secretions, to attach itself to the earthworm to prevent escape.

The planarians cover, or cap, the prostomium, peristomium, and anterior end to stop the violent reaction by the earthworm. To feed on their prey, species of Bipalium often evert their pharynges from their mouths, located on the midventral portion of their bodies, and secrete enzymes that begin the digestion of the prey. The liquefied tissues are sucked into the branching gut of the flatworms by ciliary action.

Reproduction in Bipalium may be asexual or sexual and all species are hermaphroditic. Little is known about the ecology of terrestrial planarians, but research has been done on different genera and species, including several native and invasive species in Brazil, Arthurdendyus triangulatus, Rhynchodemus and Bipalium.

Diversibipalium rauchi is a species of land planarian within the family Geoplanidae. The species is native to Singapore on its main island Pulau Ujong. A number have also been found occurring in Florida, however it is unknown if there is an established population or is simply frequently introduced. The species is ornately patterned with broad black and white bands running throughout its body, ending in a red-orange lunate-shaped head.

Phylum: Platyhelminthes

Order: Tricladida

Family: Geoplanidae

Genus: Diversibipalium

Species: D. rauchi

Binomial name : Diversibipalium rauchi

(Graff, 1898)

Synonyms : 

Bipalium rauchi

Graff, 1898

Millipedes are a group of arthropods that are characterised by having two pairs of jointed legs on most body segments; they are known scientifically as the class Diplopoda, the name being derived from this feature.

Each double-legged segment is a result of two single segments fused together. Most millipedes have very elongated cylindrical or flattened bodies with more than 20 segments, while pill millipedes are shorter and can roll into a ball. Although the name "millipede" derives from the Latin for "thousand feet", no known species has 1,000; the record of 750 legs belongs to Illacme plenipes.

There are approximately 12,000 named species classified into 16 orders and around 140 families, making Diplopoda the largest class of myriapods, an arthropod group which also includes centipedes and other multi-legged creatures.

Millipedes come in a variety of body shapes and sizes, ranging from 2 mm (0.08 in) to around 35 cm (14 in) in length and can have as few as eleven to over a hundred segments. They are generally black or brown in colour, although there are a few brightly coloured species, and some have aposematic colouring to warn that they are toxic, species of Motyxia produce cyanide as a chemical defence and are bioluminescent.

Body styles vary greatly between major millipede groups. In the basal subclass Penicillata, consisting of the tiny bristle millipedes, the exoskeleton is soft and uncalcified, and is covered in prominent setae or bristles.

All other millipedes, belonging to the subclass Chilognatha, have a hardened exoskeleton. The chilognaths are in turn divided into two infraclasses : the Pentazonia, containing relatively short-bodied groups such as pill millipedes, and the Helminthomorpha ("worm-like" millipedes), which contains the vast majority of species, with long, many-segmented bodies.

The head of a millipede is typically rounded above and flattened below and bears a pair of large mandibles in front of a plate-like structure called a gnathochilarium ("jaw lip").

The head contains a single pair of antennae with seven or eight segments and a group of sensory cones at the tip. Many orders also possess a pair of sensory organs known as the Tömösváry organs, shaped as small oval rings posterior and lateral to the base of the antennae. Their function is unknown, but they also occur in some centipedes, and are possibly used to measure humidity or light levels in the surrounding environment.

Millipede eyes consist of several simple flat lensed nocelli arranged in a group or patch on each side of the head. These patches are also called ocular fields or ocellaria. Many species of millipedes, including the entire orders Polydesmida, Siphoniulida, Glomeridesmida, Siphonophorida and Platydesmida, and cave-dwelling millipedes such as Causeyellan and Trichopetalum, had ancestors that could see but have subsequently lost their eyes and are blind.

Millipede bodies may be flattened or cylindrical, and are composed of numerous metameric segments, each with an exoskeleton consisting of four chitinous plates: a single plate above (the tergite), one at each side (pleurites), and a plate on the underside (sternite) where the legs attach.

In many millipedes, such as Merocheta and Juliformia, these plates are fused to varying degrees, sometimes forming a single cylindrical ring. The plates are typically hard, being impregnated with calcium salts. Because they can't close their permanently open spiracles and most species lack a waxy cuticle, millipedes are susceptible to water loss and with a few exceptions must spend most of their time in moist or humid environments.

The first segment behind the head is legless and known as a collum (from the Latin for neck or collar).

The second, third, and fourth body segments bear a single pair of legs each and are known as "haplosegments" (the three haplosegments are sometimes referred to as a "thorax").

The remaining segments, from the fifth to the posterior, are properly known as diplosegments or double segments, formed by the fusion of two embryonic segments. Each diplosegment bears two pairs of legs, rather than just one as in centipedes.

In some millipedes, the last few segments may be legless. The terms "segment" or "body ring" are often used interchangeably to refer to both haplo- and diplosegments. The final segment is known as the telson and consists of a legless preanal ring, a pair of anal valves (closeable plates around the anus), and a small scale below the anus.

Millipedes in several orders have keel-like extensions of the body-wall known as paranota, which can vary widely in shape, size, and texture; modifications include lobes, papillae, ridges, crests, spines and notches. Paranota may allow millipedes to wedge more securely into crevices, protect the legs, or make the millipede more difficult for predators to swallow.

The legs are composed of seven segments, and attach on the underside of the body. The legs of an individual are generally rather similar to each other, although often longer in males than females, and males of some species may have a reduced or enlarged first pair of legs.

The most conspicuous leg modifications are involved in reproduction, discussed below. Despite the common name, no millipede has been discovered with 1,000 legs: common species have between 34 and 400 legs, and the record is held by Illacme plenipes, with individuals possessing up to 750 legs – more than any other creature on Earth.

Millipedes breathe through two pairs of spiracles located ventrally on each segment near the base of the legs. Each opens into an internal pouch, and connects to a system of tracheae. The heart runs the entire length of the body, with an aorta stretching into the head. The excretory organs are two pairs of malpighian tubules, located near the mid-part of the gut. The digestive tract is a simple tube with two pairs of salivary glands to help digest the food.

Millipedes show a diversity of mating styles and structures. In the basal order Polyxenida (bristle millipedes), mating is indirect: males deposit spermatophores onto webs they secrete with special glands, and the spermatophores are subsequently picked up by females.

In all other millipede groups, males possess one or two pairs of modified legs called gonopods which are used to transfer sperm to the female during copulation.

The location of the gonopods differs between groups: in males of the Pentazonia they are located at the rear of the body and known as telopods and may also function in grasping females, while in the Helminthomorpha – the vast majority of species – they are located on the seventh body segment. A few species are parthenogenetic, having few, if any, males.

Gonopods occur in a diversity of shapes and sizes, and in the range from closely resembling walking legs to complex structures quite unlike legs at all.

In some groups, the gonopods are kept retracted within the body; in others they project forward parallel to the body. Gonopod morphology is the predominant means of determining species among millipedes: the structures may differ greatly between closely related species but very little within a species. The gonopods develop gradually from walking legs through successive moults until reproductive maturity.

The genital openings (gonopores) of both sexes are located on the underside of the third body segment (near the second pair of legs) and may be accompanied in the male by one or two penes which deposit the sperm packets onto the gonopods.

In the female, the genital pores open into paired small sacs called cyphopods or vulvae, which are covered by small hood-like lids, and are used to store the sperm after copulation. The cyphopod morphology can also be used to identify species. Millipede sperm lack flagella, a unique trait among myriapods.

In all except the bristle millipedes, copulation occurs with the two individuals facing one another. Copulation may be preceded by male behaviours such as tapping with antennae, running along the back of the female, offering edible glandular secretions, or in the case of some pill-millipedes, stridulation or "chirping". 

During copulation in most millipedes, the male positions his seventh segment in front of the female's third segment, and may insert his gonopods to extrude the vulvae before bending his body to deposit sperm onto his gonopods and reinserting the "charged" gonopods into the female.

Females lay from ten to three hundred eggs at a time, depending on species, fertilising them with the stored sperm as they do so. Many species deposit the eggs on moist soil or organic detritus, but some construct nests lined with dried faeces, and may protect the eggs within silk cocoons. 

In most species, the female abandons the eggs after they are laid, but some species in the orders Platydesmida and Stemmiulida provide parental care for eggs and young.

The young hatch after a few weeks, and typically have only three pairs of legs, followed by up to four legless segments. As they grow, they continually moult, adding further segments and legs as they do so. Some species moult within specially prepared chambers of soil or silk, and may also shelter in these during wet weather, and most species eat the discarded exoskeleton after moulting.

The adult stage, when individuals become reproductively mature, is generally reached in the final moult stage, which varies between species and orders, although some species continue to moult after adulthood. Furthermore, some species alternate between reproductive and non-reproductive stages after maturity, a phenomenon known as periodomorphosis, in which the reproductive structures regress during non-reproductive stages. Millipedes may live from one to ten years, depending on species.

Millipedes occur on all continents except Antarctica, and occupy almost all terrestrial habitats. Typically forest floor dwellers, they live in leaf litter, dead wood, or soil, with a preference for humid conditions.

In temperate zones, millipedes are most abundant in moist deciduous forests, and may reach densities of over 1,000 individuals per square metre. Other habitats include coniferous forests, caves, and alpine ecosystems.

Deserticolous millipedes, species evolved to live in the desert, like Orthoporus ornatus, may show adaptations like a waxy epicuticle and the ability of water uptake from unsaturated air. Some species can survive freshwater floods and live submerged underwater for up to 11 months. A few species occur near the seashore and can survive in somewhat salty conditions.

Most millipedes are detritivores and feed on decomposing vegetation, feces, or organic matter mixed with soil. They often play important roles in the breakdown and decomposition of plant litter: estimates of consumption rates for individual species range from 1 to 11 percent of all leaf litter, depending on species and region, and collectively millipedes may consume nearly all the leaf litter in a region.

The leaf litter is fragmented in the millipede gut and excreted as pellets of leaf fragments, algae, fungi, and bacteria, which facilitates decomposition by the microorganisms. Where earthworm populations are low in tropical forests, millipedes play an important role in facilitating microbial decomposition of the leaf litter.

Some millipedes are herbivorous, feeding on living plants, and some species can become serious pests of crops. Millipedes in the order Polyxenida graze algae from bark, and Platydesmida feed on fungi.

A few species are omnivorous or in Callipodidan and Chordeumatida occasionally carnivorous feeding on insects, centipedes, earthworms, or snails. Some species have piercing mouth parts that allow them to suck up plant juices.

Millipedes are preyed on by a wide range of animals, including various reptiles, amphibians, birds, mammals, and insects. Due to their lack of speed and their inability to bite or sting, millipedes' primary defence mechanism is to curl into a tight coil – protecting their delicate legs inside an armoured exoskeleton.

Many species also emit various foul-smelling liquid secretions through microscopic holes called ozopores (the openings of "odoriferous" or "repugnatorial glands"), along the sides of their bodies as a secondary defence.

Among the many irritant and toxic chemicals found in these secretions are alkaloids, benzoquinones, phenols, terpenoids, and hydrogen cyanide. Some of these substances are caustic and can burn the exoskeleton of ants and other insect predators, and the skin and eyes of larger predators.

Primates such as capuchin monkeys and lemurs have been observed intentionally irritating millipedes in order to rub the chemicals on themselves to repel mosquitoes. Some of these defensive compounds also show antifungal activity.

The bristly millipedes (order Polyxenida) lack both an armoured exoskeleton and odiferous glands, and instead are covered in numerous bristles that in at least one species, Polyxenus fasciculatus, detach and entangle ants.

Some millipedes form mutualistic relationships with organisms of other species, in which both species benefit from the interaction, or commensal relationships, in which only one species benefits while the other is unaffected.

Many millipede species have commensal relationships with mites of the orders Mesostigmata and Astigmata. Many of these mites are believed to be phoretic rather than parasitic, which means that they use the millipede host as a means of dispersal.

A novel interaction between millipedes and mosses was described in 2011, in which individuals of the newly discovered Psammodesmus bryophorus was found to have up to ten species living on its dorsal surface, in what may provide camouflage for the millipede and increased dispersal for the mosses.

Phylum : Arthropoda

Subphylum : Myriapoda

Class : Diplopoda

Blainville in Gervais, 1844

Genus : Helicorthomorpha

Species : H. holstii

Binomial name : Helicorthomorpha holstii

(Pocock, 1895)

Millipedes are among the first animals to have colonised land during the Silurian period. Early forms probably ate mosses and primitive vascular plants.

There are two major groups of millipedes whose members are all extinct : the Archipolypoda ("ancient, many-legged ones") which contain the oldest known terrestrial animals, and Arthropleuridea, which contain the largest known land invertebrates.

Millipedes are a group of arthropods that are characterised by having two pairs of jointed legs on most body segments; they are known scientifically as the class Diplopoda, the name being derived from this feature. Each double-legged segment is a result of two single segments fused together while centipedes have one pair per segment.

The differences between millipedes and centipedes are common question from the general public.

​Both group of myriapods share similarities in long multi-segmented bodies, many legs, a single pair of antennae and the presence of posyanntennal organs.

​The head alone exemplifies the differences, millipedes have short geniculate (elbowed) antennae for probing the substrate, a pair of robust mandibles and a single pair of maxillae fused into a lip, while centipedes have long threadlike antennae, a pair of small mandibles, two pairs of maxillae and a pair of large poison ckaws.

Also most millipedes have very elongated cylindrical or flattened bodies with more than 20 segments, while pill millipedes are shorter and can roll into a ball.

The name "millipede" derives from the Latin for "thousand feet", no known species has 1,000; the record of 750 legs belongs to Illacme plenipes.

There are approximately 12,000 named species classified into 16 orders and around 140 families, making Diplopoda the largest class of myriapods, an arthropod group which also includes centipedes and other multi-legged creatures.

Most millipedes are slow-moving detritivores, eating decaying leaves and other dead plant matter. Some eat fungi or suck plant fluids, and a small minority are predatory. Millipedes are generally harmless to humans, although some can become household or garden pests.

Millipedes can be unwanted especially in greenhouses where they can cause severe damage to emergent seedlings. Most millipedes defend themselves with a variety of chemicals secreted from pores along the body, although the tiny bristle millipedes are covered with tufts of detachable bristles. 

Its primary defence mechanism is to curl into a tight coil, thereby protecting its legs and other vital delicate areas on the body behind a hard exoskeleton. Reproduction in most species is carried out by modified male legs called gonopods, which transfer packets of sperm to females.

Among myriapods, millipedes have traditionally been considered most closely related to the tiny pauropods, although some molecular studies challenge this relationship. Millipedes can be distinguished from the somewhat similar but only distantly related centipedes (class Chilopoda), which move rapidly, are venomous, carnivorous, and have only a single pair of legs on each body segment.

The scientific study of millipedes is known as diplopodology, and a scientist who studies them is called a diplopodologist.

Approximately 12,000 millipede species have been described. Estimates of the true number of species on earth range from 15,000 to as high as 80,000. Few species of millipede are at all widespread; they have very poor dispersal abilities, depending as they do on terrestrial locomotion and humid habitats. These factors have favoured genetic isolation and rapid speciation, producing many lineages with restricted ranges.

The living members of the Diplopoda are divided into sixteen orders in two subclasses. The basal subclass Penicillata contains a single order, Polyxenida (bristle millipedes).

All other millipedes belong to the subclass Chilognatha consisting of two infraclasses: Pentazonia, containing the short-bodied pill millipedes, and Helminthomorpha (worm-like millipedes), containing the great majority of the species.

Opisthodolichopus scandens are easily recognised by their long segmented body with a dark line on the back and with two pairs of legs on most segments, except for the first few and last segments . The name means “a thousand legs”, but while there are species in the world with more than 700 legs, the ones seen in Singapore seldom have more than 100.

As they grow, they need to moult discard the old skeleton and grow a new one. Their cuticle is not waterproof, and hence they are largely terrestrial.

Most species are also nocturnal to avoid water loss and are most readily found in damp habitats such as the leaf litter or underground and they feed on decaying organic matter or fungi, and hence they are commonly seen in the leaf litter or on fallen trees. They can breathe by taking in air through openings in the cuticle.

Most species are not venomous, and protect themselves either by secreting toxic or distasteful chemicals, or roll up to protect their softer underparts, exposing only the tougher upperparts.

To breed, the males usually twist their bodies around the females to transfer the sperm, and the females will lay the eggs inside a nest in the soil. The newly hatched millipedes usually have much fewer legs than the adults, and gain more legs and body segments as they moult.

Phylum : Arthropoda

Subphylum : Myriapoda

Class : Diplopoda

Blainville in Gervais, 1844

Genus : Opisthodolichopus

Species : O.scandens

Binomial name : Opisthodolichopus scandens

​Hoffman 1973

Nemertea is a phylum of invertebrat animals also known as ribbon worms or proboscis worms. Alternative names for the phylum have included Nemertini, Nemertinea and Rhynchocoela.

Most are very slim, usually only a few millimeters wide, although a few have relatively short but wide bodies. Many have patterns of yellow, orange, red and green coloration. The foregut, stomach and intestine run a little below the midline of the body, the anus is at the tip of the tail, and the mouth is under the front. A little above the gut is the rhynchocoel, a cavity which mostly runs above the midline and ends a little short of the rear of the body.

All species have a proboscis which lies in the rhynchocoel when inactive but everts (turns inside-out) to emerge just above the mouth and capture the animal's prey with venom. A highly extensible muscle in the back of the rhynchocoel pulls the proboscis in when an attack ends. A few species with stubby bodies filter feed and have suckers at the front and back ends, with which they attach to a host.

The brain is a ring of four ganglia, positioned around the rhynchocoel near its front end. At least a pair of ventral nerve cords connect to the brain and run along the length of the body.

Most nemerteans have various chemoreceptors, and on their heads some species have a number of pigment-cup ocelli. These ocelli can detect light but can not form an image.

Nemerteans respire through the skin. They have at least two lateral vessels which are joined at the ends to form a loop, and these and the rhynchocoel are filled with fluid. There is no heart, and the flow of fluid depends on contraction of muscles in the vessels and the body wall. To filter out soluble waste products, flame cells are embedded in the front part of the two lateral fluid vessels, and remove the wastes through a network of pipes to the outside.

All nemerteans move slowly, using their external cilia to glide on surfaces on a trail of slime, while larger species use muscular waves to crawl, and some swim by dorso-ventral undulations.

A few live in the open ocean while the rest find or make hiding places on the bottom. About a dozen species inhabit freshwater, mainly in the tropics and subtropics, and another dozen species live on land in cool, damp places. Most nemerteans are carnivores, feeding on annelids, clams and crustaceans. A few species are scavengers, and a few species live commensally inside the mantle cavity of molluscs. Some species have devastated commercial fishing of clams and crabs. Nemerteans have few predators. Two species are sold as fish bait.

In most species the sexes are separate, but all the freshwater species are hermaphroditic. Nemerteans often have numerous temporary gonads (ovaries or testes), and build temporary gonoducts (ducts from which the ova or sperm are emitted) opening to a gonopore, one per gonad, when the ova and sperm are ready.

The eggs are generally fertilised externally. Some species shed them into the water, and others protect their eggs in various ways. The fertilized egg divides by spiral cleavage and grows by determinate development, in which the fate of a cell can usually be predicted from its predecessors in the process of division. The embryos of most taxa develop either directly to form juveniles (like the adult but smaller) or to form planuliform larvae, in which the larva's long axis is the same as the juvenile's. However, some form a pilidium larva, in which the developing juvenile has a gut which lies across the larva's body, and usually eats the remains of the larva when it emerges. The bodies of some species fragment readily, and even parts near the tail can grow full bodies.

It has been suggested that three fossil species may be nemerteans, but none is confirmed. Traditional taxonomy divides the phylum in two classes, Anopla ("unarmed" – their proboscises do not have a little dagger) with two orders, and Enopla ("armed" with a dagger) with two orders. However, it is now accepted that Anopla are paraphyletic (have given rise to another group), as one order is more closely related to Enopla than to the other order of Anopla.

The phylum Nemertea is monophyletic. Its synapomorphies include the rhynchocoel and eversible proboscis. Traditional taxonomy says that nemerteans are closely related to flatworms. Both phyla are regarded as members of the Lophotrochozoa, a very large "super-phylum" that also includes molluscs, annelids, brachiopods, bryozoa and many other protostomes.

Nemerteans are very unusual animals. The typical nemertean body is very slim in proportion to its length. The smallest are a few millimeters long, most are less than 20 centimetres (7.9 in), and several exceed 1 metre (3.3 ft). The longest animal ever found, at 54 metres (177 ft) long, may be a specimen of Lineus longissimus.

[Note] although L. longissimus is usually only a few millimeters wide. The bodies of most nemerteans can stretch a lot, up to 10 times their resting length in some species, but reduce their length to 50% and increase their width to 300% when disturbed. A few have relatively short but wide bodies,

​Smaller nemerteans are approximately cylindrical, but larger species are flattened dorso-ventrally. Many have visible patterns in various combinations of yellow, orange, red and green.

The outermost layer of the body has no cuticle but consists of a ciliated and glandular epithelium containing rhabdites, which form the mucus in which the cilia glide. Each ciliated cell has many cilia and microvilli. The outermost layer rests on a thickened basement membrane, the dermis. Next to the dermis are at least three layers of muscles, some circular and some longitudinal. The combinations of muscle types vary between the different classes, but these are not associated with differences in movement. 

Nemerteans also have dorso-ventral muscles, which flatten the animals, especially in the larger species. Inside the concentric tubes of these layers is mesenchyme, a kind of connective tissue. In pelagic species this tissue is gelatinous and buoyant.

Kingdom : Animalia

Subkingdom : Eumetazoa

Clade : ParaHoxozoa

Clade : Bilateria

Clade : Nephrozoa

(unranked) : Protostomia

(unranked) : Spiralia

Superphylum : Lophotrochozoa

Scolopendra subspinipes is a species of very large centipede found throughout eastern Asia.

One of the most widespread and common species in the genus Scolopendra, this species is also found on virtually all land areas around and within the Indian Ocean, all of tropical and subtropical Asia from Russia to the islands of Malaysia and Indonesia, Singapore, Australia, South and Central America, the Caribbean islands, and possibly parts of the southern United States.

However, how much of this range is natural and how much due to human introduction is unclear. With a wide geographic range and numerous color variations, the species is known by a great many common names including Chinese red-headed centipede, jungle centipede, orange-legged centipede, red-headed centipede and Vietnamese centipede.

It is among the largest centipedes with a maximum length of 20 cm. This centipede is an active, aggressive predator that preys on any animal it can overpower.

This is a large species which can grow up to 20 cm in length. It has colour variations. Its body is usually red or reddish brown with yellow or yellow-orange legs. In common with other members of genus Scolopendra, it has 22 body segments with each segment having one pair of legs.

A pair of modified legs known as forcipules can be found on its head, which is covered by a flat shield and bears a pair of antennae. The forcipules are the major tools used by the centipede to kill its prey or for defense, as they have sharp claws that connect to venom glands.

Centipedes breathe through spiracles (the openings located along the sides of their bodies). These openings are either round-shaped or S-shaped. They have simple eyes with poor vision, so they rely much on touch and their chemoreceptors.

The species can be found in tropical and subtropical regions throughout the Old World.

This is an aggressive and nervous arthropod which is ready to strike if interfered with and is sensitive to vibrations nearby.

It preys primarily on arachnids, including spiders, scorpions, and vinegaroons. However, if it is large enough to overpower small vertebrates like mice or small reptiles, it will readily attempt to consume them as well. It tends to try to eat almost every living animal it encounters that is not longer than itself. It seizes prey with its anterior legs, then curves its head quickly behind to implant its venomous jaws deeply and firmly into the prey. The prey is held by the centipede's other legs until it dies from the fast-acting venom. During a fight, the centipede will use its entire body coiling the prey or enemy with its legs firmly attaching to the body of the opponent. Then, it will quickly penetrate its forcipules into the victim for venom injection.

The male produces capsules containing mature sperm cells, spermatophores, which are deposited in a reservoir called the spermathecae of the female during mating.

The female then fertilizes her immature eggs, oocytes, and deposits them in a dark, protected area. The female lays 50 to 80 eggs which she vigilantly protects until they hatch and the baby centipede molt once. If danger is detected she will wrap around her babies to keep them safe. The young centipedes molt once each year, and take three to four years to attain full adult size. Adults molt once every year. They may live for 10 years or more.

Scolopendra subspinipes has been reported as the apparent cause of a human death. The fatal case was in Philippines in which the centipede bit a seven-year-old girl on her head. She died 29 hours later.

S. subspinipes is a popular pet among arthropod hobbyists. The centipede was a traditional food source for Aboriginal Australians.

The number of subspecies of S. subspinipes is unclear and varies between authors.

Taxonomic characters have incorporated plastic traits such as color and sulcus structure and the number and position of spines, producing indistinguishable and intergrading subspecies.

A 2012 review found that one former subspecies, S. subspinipes cingulatoides is in fact a distinct species, and that S. subspinipes has no valid subspecies.

Phylum : Arthropoda

Class : Chilopoda

Order : Scolopendromorpha

Family : Scolopendre

Genus : Scolopendra

Species : S. subspinipes

Binomial nameb : Scolopendra subspinipes

Leach, 1815

The trilobite beetle (genus Platerodrilus) is a strikingly dimorphic beetle whose females retain a larval, trilobite-like form, while males are much smaller and resemble typical beetles.

Trilobite beetles are known for their unusual appearance, especially the females, which retain a flattened, scaly, larviform body throughout adulthood, resembling prehistoric trilobites. 

Female beetles measure 4–8 cm (1.6–3.1 in), with dark bodies and orange scaly markings, while males are significantly smaller, about 0.8–0.9 cm (0.31–0.35 in), with yellow elytra and black markings, and undergo complete metamorphosis into a typical beetle form. The females’ large scales cover their heads and flattened bodies, whereas males have thick antennae adapted for flight and mating.

Trilobite beetles are primarily found in tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia and India, thriving in humid environments, rich in decaying organic matter like leaf litter and damp forest floors where fungi, slime molds, and other decomposing matter are abundant which provide both protection and a rich food source.

Females and larvae feed on rotting wood, fungi, slime molds, and small decomposing organisms, contributing to nutrient recycling in their ecosystems. Males likely feed on nectar to sustain energy for flight and reproduction. Trilobite beetles play a significant role in breaking down decaying organic matter, which contributes to nutrient cycling within the ecosystem.

Their presence is closely associated with the lush ecosystems of tropical rainforests, which provide the necessary conditions for their survival and reproduction.

Found in Southeast Asia and India, these peculiar beetles aren’t related to trilobites, but they are named after them, because of their similarly armoured bodies and helmet-like heads and their strange looks are just the beginning. Their mating habits are so mysterious, they’ve kept scientists guessing for more than two centuries

First discovered back in the 1800s, trilobite beetles belong to the family Lycidae, commonly referred to as net-winged beetles. A major characteristic of many net-winged beetle species is that their males and females look entirely different.

The most confounding thing about trilobite beetles – every single individual that looks like a trilobite is a female. That form is actually retained from when they were larvae, so the females change very little from when they hatch out of their eggs.

The males are different they basically look like plain old beetles, with long winged bodies and a pair of thick antennae. They tend to only grow to about 5 mm long, whereas the females can stretch to more than 6 cm.

Male trilobite beetles look like every other beetle you might see hiding out in the forest, the only way to confirm what one actually looks like is by catching it in the act of mating with a female.

​Platerodrilus ruficollis is a species of trilobite beetle found in Malaysia and Singapore, also known by its junior synonym, Duliticola hoiseni.

Platerodrilus is a genus of beetles of the family Lycidae. They commonly appear in the literature under the name Duliticola, which is an obsolete junior synonym.

The females retain a larval form as adults and are about 40–80 mm in length. The females and larvae have a flattened, dark body with large scales over the head, resembling trilobites, hence the informal names trilobite beetle, trilobite larva or Sumatran trilobite larva.

In contrast, the males are much smaller, 8–9 mm, resembling other beetles. Species are found in tropical rainforests of India and South-east Asia.

​Trilobites ( meaning "three lobes") are a group of extinct marine artiopodan arthropods that form the

class Trilobita.

Trilobites form one of the earliest-known groups of arthropods. The first appearance of trilobites in the fossil record defines the base of the Atdabanian stage of the Early Cambrian period (521 million years ago), and they flourished throughout the lower Paleozoic before slipping into a long decline, when, during the Devonian, all trilobite orders except the Proetida died out. 

The last extant trilobites finally disappeared in the mass extinction at the end of the Permian about 252 million years ago. Trilobites were among the most successful of all early animals, existing in oceans for almost 300 million years.

By the time trilobites first appeared in the fossil record, they were already highly diversified and geographically dispersed. Because trilobites had wide diversity and an easily fossilized exoskeleton, they left an extensive fossil record. The study of their fossils has facilitated important contributions to biostratigraphy, paleontology, evolutionary biology, and plate tectonics.

​Trilobites are often placed within the arthropod subphylum Schizoramia within the superclass Arachnomorpha (equivalent to the Arachnata), although several alternative taxonomies are found in the literature. More recently they have been placed within the Artiopoda, which includes many organisms that are morphologically similar to trilobites, but are largely unmineralised.

Trilobites had many lifestyles; some moved over the seabed as predators, scavengers, or filter feeders, and some swam, feeding on plankton. Some even crawled onto land.

Most lifestyles expected of modern marine arthropods are seen in trilobites, with the possible exception of parasitism (where scientific debate continues). Some trilobites (particularly the family Olenidae) are even thought to have evolved a symbiotic relationship with sulfur-eating bacteria from which they derived food.

The largest trilobites were more than 45 centimetres (18 in) long and may have weighed as much as 4.5 kilograms (9.9 lb).

​Surprisingly enough, even the world's leading experts on these beetles are not 100% sure what they feed on, and up until relatively recently, there was some conflict as to what their diet consisted of.

However, the most popular and widely accepted theory is that these beetles feed on microorganisms living within the juices of rotten logs, as outlined in the findings of Alvin T. C. Wong (1996). Most Platerodrilus experts agree with Wong on that, so for now it should be treated as fact. Besides theres information that this species do feed on slime mold too.

Kingdom : Animalia

Phylum : Arthropoda

Class : Insecta

Order : Coleoptera

Family : Lycidae

Genus : Platerodrilus

Species : P. ruficollis

Binomial name : Platerodrilus ruficollis

(Pic, 1942)

Millipedes are a group of arthropods that are characterised by having two pairs of jointed legs on most body segments; they are known scientifically as the class Diplopoda, the name being derived from this feature.

Each double-legged segment is a result of two single segments fused together. Most millipedes have very elongated cylindrical or flattened bodies with more than 20 segments, while pill millipedes are shorter and can roll into a ball.

Most millipedes are slow-moving detritivores, eating decaying leaves and other dead plant matter. Some eat fungi or suck plant fluids, and a small minority are predatory.

Millipedes are generally harmless to humans, although some can become household or garden pests. Millipedes can be unwanted especially in greenhouses where they can cause severe damage to emergent seedlings.

Most millipedes defend themselves with a variety of chemicals secreted from pores along the body, although the tiny bristle millipedes are covered with tufts of detachable bristles. Its primary defence mechanism is to curl into a tight coil, thereby protecting its legs and other vital delicate areas on the body behind a hard exoskeleton. Reproduction in most species is carried out by modified male legs called gonopods, which transfer packets of sperm to females.

First appearing in the Silurian period, millipedes are some of the oldest known land animals. Some members of prehistoric groups grew to over 2 m (6 ft 7 in); the largest modern species reach maximum lengths of 27 to 38 cm (11 to 15 in). The longest extant species is the giant African millipede (Archispirostreptus gigas).

Among myriapods, millipedes have traditionally been considered most closely related to the tiny pauropods, although some molecular studies challenge this relationship.

Millipedes can be distinguished from the somewhat similar but only distantly related centipedes (class Chilopoda), which move rapidly, are venomous, carnivorous, and have only a single pair of legs on each body segment.

The scientific study of millipedes is known as diplopodology, and a scientist who studies them is called a diplopodologist.

Polydesmida (from the Greek poly "many" and desmos "bond") is the largest order of millipedes, containing approximately 5000 species, including all the millipedes reported to produce hydrogen cyanide (HCN).

Members of the order Polydesmida are also known as "Flat-backed millipedes", or Tractor millipede, thats because on most species, each body segment has wide lateral keels known as paranota. These keels are produced by the posterior half (metazonite) of each body ring behind the collum.

Polydesmids have no eyes, and vary in length from 3 to 130 mm (0.12 to 5.12 in). Including the telson, adults have 19 or 20 rings, while juveniles may have from 7 to 19 rings.

Many species deviate from the typical body plan. Mature males have a single pair of gonopods consisting of the modified forward leg pair of the 7th segment and many of the larger species show bright coloration patterns which warn predators of their toxic secretions.

Polydesmids grow and develop through a series of molts, adding segments until they reach a fixed number in the adult stage, which is usually the same for a given sex in a given species, at which point the molting and the addition of segments and legs stop. This mode of development, known as teloanamorphosis, distinguishes this order from most other orders of millipedes. Millipedes in other orders usually continue to molt as adults, developing through either euanamorphosis or hemianamorphosis.

Polydesmids are very common in leaf litter, where they burrow by levering with the anterior end of the body. These millipedes feed on decaying vegetation. Some species are prey for funnel-web spiders.

The species of Polydesmida are variously classified into four suborders (names ending in "-idea"), and 29 families, the largest (numerically) including Paradoxosomatidae, Xystodesmidae, and Chelodesmidae.

Barydesmus is a genus within the order Polydesmida. It belongs to the family Platyrhacidae, which is part of the larger order Polydesmida, which includes over 5,000 species of millipedes. Barydesmus is known for its diversity and is particularly well-studied in the Americas.

Phylum : Arthropoda

Subphylum : Myriapoda

Class : Diplopoda

Subclass : Chilognatha

Infraclass : Helminthomorpha

Subterclass : Eugnatha

Superorder : Merocheta

Cook, 1895

Order : Polydesmida

Leach, 1815

( flat-backed / tractor millipedes)

​Genus : Barydesmus

Suborders : 

Dalodesmidea

Leptodesmidea Brölemann, 1916

Paradoxosomatidea Daday, 1889

Polydesmidea Leach, 1815

Synonyms :

Proterospermatophora Verhoeff, 1900

Bipalium kewense is a species of large predatory land planarian with a cosmopolitan distribution. It is sometimes referred to as a "hammerhead flatworm" due to its half-moon-shaped head, but this name is also used to refer to other species in the subfamily Bipaliinae.

Bipalium kewense is a very long land planarian. Preserved specimens are up to 20 centimetres in length, and living specimens may be longer.

The anterior end ("head") is expanded in a transversal semilunate shape and the body is the narrowest just behind the head, in a region called "neck". The dorsal color is light-brown with five black to grey longitudinal stripes that begin at the neck. 

The median and marginal stripes are narrow and black, very distinctly marked. The lateral stripes (between the median and marginal stripes) are usually grey, broad and with diffuse margins. The neck is usually marked by an incomplete black collar formed by the union of the marginal and lateral stripes, this being one of the main characteristics to distinguish it from similar species. 

The head usually has a darker color than the background color of the dorsum and lacks stripes. The ventral side has a light ochre color externally and whitish over the creeping sole, which is externally lined by two diffuse grey-violet longitudinal lines.

Bipalium kewense is believed to be native to Southeast Asia, but currently is found worldwide. It was probably introduced by international plant trade, as it is frequently found associated with plant pots.

The species was first found in 1878 in the area of the Kew Park in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, United Kingdom, hence the name kewense.

B. kewense is a known predator of earthworms. It immobilizes the prey using muscular movements and possibly toxins and then everts its pharynx, connecting it to the earthworm's body and beginning digestion. The digestion seems to be at least partially extracorporeal by means of a collagenolyticenzyme.

Bipalium kewense is one of the few terrestrial invertebrates known to produce tetrodotoxin, a neurotoxin that results in paralysis. It is possible that the toxin aids the planarian in subduing its prey as well as in protecting it against predators.

All species of Bipalium are hermaphroditic, but Bipalium kewense has rarely been observed using sexual reproduction as a primary means of reproduction.

A sexual fragmentation is the primary means of reproduction in B. kewense in temperate regions. Long specimens usually release body fragments at the posterior end by transverse fission. The fragments are motile and regenerate the head plate and pharynx in a few weeks. Such a reproduction strategy is considered one of the reason for the successful colonization of this and other species of Bipalium.

Although there is little evidence of sexual reproduction in these planarians, there have been several reported cases of egg capsules being discovered. The egg capsules discovered had several of the same characteristics of those of B. adventitium, including coloration and incubation period. The most recent egg capsule discovered hatched offspring that did not bear a complete resemblance to adults and were considerably larger in size to that of B. adventitum offspring.

Phylum : Platyhelminthes

Order : Tricladida

Family : Geoplanidae

Genus : Bipalium

Species : B. kewense

Binomial name : Bipalium kewense

Moseley, 1878

Synonyms : 

Bipalium manubriatum Sharp, 1891

Sphyrocephalus kewensis Hallez, 1893

Placocephalus kewensis Graff, 1896

Placocephalus isabellinus Geba, 1909

Bipalium costaricense Hyman, 1939

Pill millipedes are any members of two living (and one extinct) orders of millipedes, often grouped together into a single superorder, Oniscomorpha. The name Oniscomorpha refers to the millipedes' resemblance to certain woodlice (Oniscidea), also called pillbugs or "roly-polies". However, millipedes and woodlice are not closely related (belonging to the subphyla Myriapoda and Crustacea, respectively); rather, this is a case of convergent evolution.

Pill millipedes are relatively short-bodied compared to most other millipedes, with only eleven to thirteen body segments, and are capable of rolling into a ball (volvation) when disturbed, as a defense against predators. This ability evolved separately in each of the two orders, making it a case of convergent evolution, rather than homology.

They can also exude a noxious liquid, which may be both caustic and toxic, to repel predators. Pill millipedes are detritivorous, feeding on decomposing plant matter, usually in woodlands.

The order Glomerida is predominantly found in the Northern Hemisphere and includes species such as Glomeris marginata, the common European pill millipede. They have from eleven to twelve body segments, and possess dorsal ozopores (openings of the repugnatorial glands) rather than the lateral ozopores found on many other millipedes. Glomeridans reach maximum lengths of 20 mm (0.79 in), and eyes, if present, are in a single row of ocelli.

​The order contains approximately 450 species found in Europe, South-east Asia and the Americas from California to Guatemala. Four species are present in the British Isles.

The order Sphaerotheriida is a Gondwana-distribution taxon, with around 350 species in southern Africa, Madagascar, Australasia and South East Asia. Five species, all in the genus Procyliosoma are present in New Zealand and around thirty species are present in Australia. 

Sphaerotheriidans have thirteen body segments, and do not possess repugnatorial glands. Spherotheriidans reach larger size than Glomeridans (up to 10 cm (3.9 in)), and always possess large, kidney-shaped eyes.

​Sphaerotheriida is an order of millipedes in the infraclass Pentazonia, sometimes known as giant pill millipedes.

They inhabit Southern Africa, Madagascar, South and Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

Like the Northern Hemisphere pill millipedes of the order Glomerida, these millipedes can roll into a ball when disturbed. When they are rolled-up, most sphaerotheriidans reach a maximum size of a cherry or golf ball, but some species from Madagascar can even reach the size of an orange.

When rolled-up, predators are unable to unravel giant pill millipedes since the margins of their second and last dorsal plates fit perfectly into one another, creating a sealed ball. A few giant pill millipede species are able to produce sound, the only millipedes known to do this. This order of millipedes is also unique in that some African species are used for medicinal purposes.

Sphaerotheriidans are characterized by a relatively conservative body morphology; superficially all species and genera look the same. Dorsally, their head is followed by twelve body tergites (collum, thoracic shield, and ten normal tergites) and the anal shield.

Ventrally, females possess twenty-one leg pairs (forty-two legs in total), while males carry two additional modified leg pairs, the anterior and posterior telopods under their anal shield. The telopods resemble chelae and/or clamp-like structures, which are probably used in holding the female during mating. 

In the position of the male telopods, the females instead have a sclerotized subanal plate, which in some species such as those belonging to the family Arthrosphaeridae, is enlarged and is used to produce vibrations (stridulation). Furthermore, unlike other large-bodied millipede orders, Sphaerotheriida do not have glands that excrete poisonous or ill-smelling substances. Instead they depend entirely on their rolling-up behavior for protection.

Sphaerotheriida somewhat resemble the North American and Eurasian pill millipedes of the order Glomerida, but are generally larger in size (20–80 millimetres or 0.8–3.1 inches body length). Until the end of the 20th century only the largest known species in the order Glomerida rivalled the size of even the smallest known Sphaerotheriida, but in the early 21st century a much smaller Sphaerotheriid was described from Madagascar : full-grown specimens of Microsphaerotherium ivohibiensis are just the size of a pea.

Also on Madagascar, some giant pill millipede species exhibit island gigantism, reaching more than 9.5 cm (3.7 in) in outstretched length and a size comparable to an orange when rolled up.

The orders differ in the number of tergites (10 or 11 in Glomerida, 12 in Sphaerotheriida) and legs (17 or 19 in Glomerida, 21 or 23 in Sphaerotheriida), and show great differences in their head morphology and genital openings, among other traits.

Both orders have the ability to roll into a perfect ball, protecting the head, antennae, and the vulnerable underside. However, this rolled-up position (volvation) is achieved differently. In Glomerida, the enlarged second body ring (thoracic shield) has a more or less visible gap within which fit the tips of tergites 3–11, whereas in Sphaerotheriida the tips of tergites 3–12 fit perfectly into a groove on the thoracic shield. Juvenile sphaerotheriidans show the same gap as the Glomerida.

​Many giant pill millipede species have special ledges ('locking carinae') on the underside of the tergite tips and the anal shield which can be moved above a brim on the thoracic shield. These millipedes remain passively locked-up since they need not continued muscle contraction to remain in the rolled-up position.

In general, Sphaerotheriida have a Gondwanan distribution. Little is known about the ecology, development and life history of Sphaerotheriida, but apparently all species are detritivores, feeding on dead organic matter such as leaves and wood on the forest floor. 

Like earthworms, they play an important role in decomposition; by breaking down decaying organic matter they release locked up nutrients back into the soil. Such recycling is essential for plant nutrition and accordingly for the entire ecology.

It is possible that giant pill millipedes rely on special bacteria in their gut, much as termites do, to exploit the nutritional value of otherwise indigestible material such as lignin.

Sphaerotheriida inhabit mainly the leaf litter of humid forests. Some species, however, show an arboreal (tree-living) lifestyle, and in these the rolling-up reflex has been suppressed. The rolling-up ability and tough skeletal armor of the Sphaerotheriida offer protection against some predators, but a wide variety of predators feed on them, or even specialise in them as a source of food.

Species that specialize in feeding on giant pill millipedes necessarily have evolved special structures or behaviors to overcome their defences.

​Examples include the South African snail family Chlamydephoridae which almost exclusively feeds on giant pill millipedes.

Another example is the meerkat (Suricata suricata) which has been reported (at least in captivity) to throw rolled-up sphaerotheriids against rocks in order to break them. This behaviour however, is their way of breaking open many refractory food items, such as snails and hard-shelled eggs.

Apart from the rolling-up behavior of giant pill millipedes, camouflage may be an important defense mechanism against predators that hunt by sight, such as birds.

Sphaerotheriida also are subject to internal parasitism, and several species of nematodes are obligate parasites of particular species of giant pill millipedes.

Phylum : Arthropoda

Class : Diplopoda

Subclass : Chilognatha

Infraclass : Pentazonia

Superorder : Oniscomorpha

Order : Sphaerotheriida

Brandt, 1833Families

Harpaphe is a genus of flat-backed millipedes native to the Pacific Northwest of North America. The genus contains three described species : two occurring only in northern California, and one with a large range extending from Southeast Alaska to Central California.

The genus Harpaphe is in the family Xystodesmidae, which contains several other species with similar markings, including North American species of Boraria, Chonaphe, Paimokia, Hybaphe and Montaphe.

Exact species determination requires examination of the male gonopods, but the sharply pointed posterior corners of the paranota can help distinguish Harpaphe from Hybaphe and Chonaphe.

Harpaphe haydeniana, the widest-ranging species, is divided into six subspecies distinguished by geography and subtle differences in color and morphology. H. hayedniana spans the range of Harpaphe, occurring from Monterey County, California to Southeast Alaska. Harpaphe pottera occurs in Mendocino and Humboldt counties in northern California, while Harpaphe telodonta occurs in Humboldt and Del Norte counties, California.

Harpaphe haydeniana, commonly known as the yellow-spotted millipede, almond-scented millipede or cyanide millipede, is a species of polydesmidan ("flat-backed") millipede found in the moist forests along the Pacific coast of North America, from Southeast Alaska to California.

The dark coloration with contrasting yellow-tipped keels warn of its ability to exude toxic hydrogen cyanide as a defense. Despite the various common names given the species, the coloration pattern, cyanide defense, and associated almond scent occur in other flat-backed millipedes around the world.

Harpaphe haydeniana reach a length of 4–5 centimeters (1.6–2 in) when mature. The upper surface of the body is black to olive green, and is distinctively marked along the sides with patches of a yellowish colour. 

H. haydeniana has approximately twenty body segments, bearing a total of 30 (males) or 31 (females) pairs of legs. The difference between males and females is due to one pair of legs on the seventh segment in males being modified to form gonopods used for sperm transfer. Individuals may live for 2–3 years.

Harpaphe haydeniana is an important part of the forest ecosystem, breaking down leaf litter and freeing its nutrients for other organisms. It is commonly associated with redwood forests where many individuals may be found within a small area. Immature millipedes feed on humus.

In classical soil science, humus is the dark organic matter in soil that is formed by the decomposition of plant, microbial and animal matter. It is a kind of soil organic matter with distinct properties due to its high surface area. It is rich in nutrients and retains. Only the decomposed organic matter in soil is considered humus, while the portion still in the process of decomposition is referred to as detritus. 

Harpaphe haydeniana has few predators, due to its aposematic coloration and its ability to secrete hydrogen cyanide when threatened. This behaviour gives rise to the common names "cyanide millipede" and "almond-scented millipede" (since cyanide smells of almonds), although cyanide secretion is not unique to H.haydeniana.

Nonetheless, at least one species, the ground beetle Promecognathus laevissimus, is a specialised predator of H. haydeniana.

Phylum : Arthropoda

Subphylum : Myriapoda

Class : Diplopoda

Order : Polydesmida

Family : Xystodesmidae

Genus : Harpaphe

Species : H. haydeniana

Binomial name : Harpaphe haydeniana

(Wood, 1864)

Subspecies : 

H. h. cummingsiensis (Verhoeff, 1944)

H. h. haydeniana (Wood, 1864)

H. h. inlignea Chamberlin, 1949

H. h. lanceolata Buckett & Gardner, 1968

H. h. maurogona Buckett & Gardner, 1968

H. h. scotia (Chamberlin, 1941)

Trigoniulus is a genus of millipede in the family Trigoniulidae. There are at least 90 described species in Trigoniulus.

Trigoniulus corallinus, sometimes called the rusty millipede or common Asian millipede, is a species of millipede widely distributed in the Indo-Malayan region including India, Sri Lanka, China, Taiwan, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, and much of Indonesia.

It is also reported from Fiji, Tanzania and Zambia, and found in South Asia and the Caribbean as an introduced species and it has also been introduced to Florida and as of 2022 is well-distributed throughout South and Central Florida, with limited sightings in the Northeast and Panhandle.

T. corallinus is 2–3 in (50–75 mm) at adult size, and reddish brown in color. These millipedes inhabit moist areas, rotten wood and compost. The genome of T. corallinus was sequenced in 2015, the first time this has been done for a millipede.

Phylum : Arthropoda

Class : Diplopoda

Order : Spirobolida

Family : Trigoniulidae

Genus : Trigoniulus

Species : T. corallinus

Binomial name  : Trigoniulus corallinus

(Gervais, 1842)

Scutigera is a centipede genus in the scutigeromorph (house centipede) family Scutigeridae, a group of centipedes with long limbs and true compound eyes (which were once thought to be secondary, re-evolved "pseudofacetted eyes". It is composed of more than 30 species including the most common and well-studied species, Scutigera coleoptrata.

Scutigera coleoptrata is a small, typically yellowish-grey centipede with up to 15 pairs of long legs. Originating in the Mediterranean region, the species has spread to other parts of the world, where it can live in human homes, thus gaining the name house centipede. It is an insectivore; it kills and eats other arthropods, such as insects and arachnids.

Two of the house centipede’s legs, located right near the head and near the mouth, have been modified to carry venom. Technically, this means that house centipede sting their prey rather than bite. Their venom is potent for smaller insects such as silverfish and termites. They are also capable of holding multiple preys in their legs and if they get any of their legs caught, they can just break them off and scurry away.

Their eyes are very sensitive to light, so more than likely they will find a place to hide during the day. They are not considered dangerous to humans. While it is possible that one might bite a person, more than likely it would take picking up a house centipede and handling one for that to happen. They would much rather reserve their venom for food and humans just are not something on the menu.

If someone is bitten, more than likely it will just cause a reddish bump. People who are especially sensitive to bee stings and other insect bites and stings may need to see a doctor to make sure they don’t have an allergic reaction to the house centipede bite, but most people should feel no effects at all.

The body of an adult Scutigera coleoptrata is 25 to 35 mm (0.98 to 1.38 in) in length. Up to 15 pairs of long legs are attached to the rigid body. Together with the antennae they give the centipede an appearance of being 75 to 100 mm (3 to 4 in) in length. 

The delicate legs enable it to reach surprising speeds of up to 0.4 meters per second (1.3 ft/s) running across floors, up walls and along ceilings. Its body is yellowish-grey and has three dark dorsal stripes running down its length; the legs also have dark stripes. S. coleoptrata has developed automimicry in that its tail-like hind legs present the appearance of antennae. When the centipede is at rest, it is not easy to tell its cranial end from its caudal end.

Unlike most other centipedes, house centipedes and their close relatives have well-developed faceted eyes. House centipedes live anywhere from three to seven years, depending on the environment. They can start breeding in their third year. To begin mating, the male and female circle around each other. They initiate contact with their antennae. The male deposits his sperm on the ground and the female then uses it to fertilize her eggs.

House centipedes feed on spiders, bed bugs, termites, cockroaches, silverfish, ants, and other household arthropods. They administer venom through forcipules. These are not part of their mandibles, so strictly speaking they sting rather than bite. They are mostly nocturnal hunters. Despite their developed eyes, they seem to rely mostly on their antennae when hunting. Their antennae are sensitive to both smells and tactile information.

They use both their mandibles and their legs for holding prey. This way they can deal with several small insects at the same time. To capture prey they either jump onto it or use their legs in a technique described as "lassoing". Using their legs to beat prey has also been described. Like other centipedes they can stridulate.

Outdoors, house centipedes prefer to live in cool, damp places. Centipede respiratory systems do not provide any mechanism for shutting the spiracles, and that is why they need an environment that protects them from dehydration and excessive cold. Most live outside, primarily under large rocks, piles of wood, and especially in compost piles.

Within the home, these centipedes are found in almost any part of the house. Most commonly they are encountered in basements, bathrooms, and lavatories, which tend to be humid, but they can also be found in drier places like offices, bedrooms and dining rooms. The greatest likelihood of encountering them is in spring, when they come out because the weather gets warmer, and in autumn/fall, when the cooling weather forces them to find shelter in human habitats.

The faceted eyes of S. coleoptrata are sensitive to daylight and very sensitive to ultraviolet light. They were shown to be able to visually distinguish between different mutations of Drosophila melanogaster.

How this ability fits with its nocturnal lifestyle and underground natural habitat is still under study. They do not instantly change direction when light is suddenly shone at them, but will retreat to a darker hiding spot.

Some of the plates covering the body segments fused and became smaller during the evolution to the current state of S. coleoptrata. The resulting mismatch between body segments and dorsal plates (tergites) is the cause for this centipede's rigid body.

Unlike its shorter-legged but much larger tropical cousins, S. coleoptrata can live its entire life inside a building, usually the ground levels of homes. Though they often startle their unwitting housemates with their appearance and surprising speed, they are generally considered harmless to humans. 

Bites are uncommon, and the forcipules of house centipedes are not strong enough to easily penetrate human skin. Its bite and venom are typically less severe than other centipedes.

Techniques for eliminating centipedes from homes include drying up the areas where they thrive, eliminating large indoor insect populations, and sealing cracks in the walls. An alternative is to let them live, allowing them to control pests, e.g., roaches, flies, moths, bed bugs, silverfish, earwigs, etc.

Phylum : Arthropoda

Subphylum : Myriapoda

Class : Chilopoda

Order : Scutigeromorpha

Family : Scutigeridae

Genus : Scutigera

Species : S. coleoptrata

Binomial name : Scutigera coleoptrata

(Linnaeus, 1758)

Synonyms :

Scutigera forceps