Eumillipes persephone is an animal from Australia. A female has 330 segments and 1,306 legs. There is a view of the legs. There is a view of gonopods in the head and the ventral. The scale bars are small.
Scientific reports are published.
millipede means thousand feet. Until now, the name for the invertebrates has been a bit overstated, with none of them sporting anything close to that many feet or legs.
Bruno Buzatto, a principal biologist at Bennelongia Environmental Consultants in Perth, Australia, discovered a new species of millipede.
One specimen of the newly discovered Eumillipes persephone has a total of 1,306 legs, and was counted by the researchers. The previous record holder had 750 legs. The first description of the millipede was in 1928 and it was thought to have been extinct until it was rediscovered in California by a Virginia Tech entomologist.
Specimens were found in a drill hole.
The new find, E. persephone, was named after the Greek goddess of the Underworld. A drill hole was created for mineral exploration in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia and eight specimen were collected over several months.
The drill holes that were baited with decaying material were put into by Buzatto. Initially, it was thought that the millipede had around 800 legs. He sent the specimen for further examination and a more accurate leg count.
The largest specimen was described as a "pale, thread-like creature just under a millimeter wide with a cone-shaped head with enormous antennae and a beak for feeding."
The co-author of the book thinks it is a stunning animal.
It is the most extreme that has been found in the smallest animals, which were the first to conquer land. This species was able to adapt to living deep in the soil in an arid and harsh landscape, where it is very hard to find any millipedes surviving in the surface.
Hatchlings start with just 4 pairs of legs.
The paper described half of the specimen collection. The males of this new species have less legs and segments than females. One male has 778 legs and one male has 198 legs. A female specimen has more legs than the record-breaking female with 1,306 legs.
Hatchlings emerge from the egg with four pairs of legs, and continuously add segments during development for an indeterminate period of time, even after adulthood, according to the authors.
Why are there so many feet? "The more strength you have, the stronger you will be," says Rodriguez, a co-author of the study.
