Millipedes or millepedes (Class Diplopoda, previously also known as Chilognatha) are very elongated arthropods with cylindrical bodies that have two pairs of legs for each one of their 20 to 100 or more body segments (except for the first segment behind the head which does not have any appendages at all, and the next few which only have one pair of legs). Each segment that has two pairs of legs is a result of two single segments fused together as one. This class contains around 10,000 species. These animals are detritivores, slow and nonvenomous; unlike the somewhat similar and closely related centipedes (Class Chilopoda), which can be easily distinguished by their single pair of legs for each body segment. Most millipedes eat decaying leaves and other dead plant matter, moisturizing the food with secretions and then scraping it in with the jaws. However they can also be a minor garden pest, especially in greenhouses where they can cause severe damage to emergent seedlings. Signs of millipede damage include the stripping of the outer layers of a young plant stem and irregular damage to leaves and plant apices.

This class of arthropods is thought to be among the first animals to colonize land during the Silurian geologic period. These early forms probably ate mosses and primitive vascular plants.

Characteristics

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The millipede's most obvious feature is its large number of legs. In fact its name is a compound word formed from the Latin roots milli ("thousand") and ped ("foot"). Despite their name, these creatures do not have a thousand legs, although the rare species Illacme plenipes have up to 750See "Most leggy millipede rediscovered" BBC News, 8 June 2006. However, common species have between 80 and 400 legs.

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@QuirkyJojo ih iy it jg ga bgt cilopoda dan diplopoda wakaka. astagaa.
stefanitirza (Stefani Tirza) Sun, 15 Nov 2009 14:25:46 -0000
@QuirkyJojo ih iy it jg ga bgt cilopoda dan diplopoda wakaka. astagaa.

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