Millipedes – Family Myriapoda

Fossils found of their ancestors date back to 450 million years ago and then they were 2m (6’) in length.

They have poor eyesight and depend on pheromone scents to find a mating partner.

 Females hollow out a chamber in which she lays up to 300 eggs at a time and they take 2-4 weeks to hatch.



The larger species of millipedes encase each egg with a clay capsule but smaller species do it around the whole batch.

Millipedes do moult and this process can take up to three weeks to complete as they have to extract each leg from the old sheath.

Their lifespan can be as long as 10 years and the Giant Millipede who has dormant periods, even longer.

Millipedes 3

We have the most colorful millipedes here......... Centipedes and millipedes are distant relatives of lobsters, crayfish and shrimp. Unlike their marine cousins, centipedes and millipedes are land dwellers, but they do prefer moist habitats or areas of high humidity.

They have two pairs of legs attached to each body segment. Some kinds may have over 200 pairs, and there are about 1300 kinds known over the world, ranging in length from a twelfth of an inch to 8 inches.

Millipedes eat plant material, especially soft, decomposing plant tissue. Their defense consists of secreting stinking juice from pores along its sides.

Their fossils, some over a foot long, are found among the swamp plants that went into the formation of coal. When touched, they curl up and "play dead".