Thursday Invertebrate Blogging: Thoroughly Ancient Millie

This week's featured invertebrate is Cherokia georgiana, known to her friends as "Millie." One of the oldest forms of life on land, this brightly colored millipede (Class Diplopoda) likes to hang out in moist, lush, forested habitat with plenty of organic litter. They are especially abundant in the foothills and lower elevations of the Appalachians.

These millipedes are detritovores, which means they like to eat the aforementioned organic litter.

Millie belongs to the Order Polydesmida. She closely resembles a western cousin, the yellow-spotted millipede (Harpaphe haydeniana), which is found in the forests of the Pacific Northwest.

The yellow coloration in these species may serve as a warning to predators that these ladies are equipped with a formidable defense mechanism - they can release cyanide through their spiracles! While the dose could be fatal to would-be millipede eaters, the concentration is too low to have any toxic effect on humans. In fact, to our nose, the cyanide reportedly smells like almond extract. Not that I advocate going around smelling millipedes to confirm these reports.

This particular specimen was photographed in Washburn, Tennessee, where the locals are rumored to call these critters "rosey bugs."

Comments

[RWS Photo]

A black and white flat-back tractor millipede from Borneo.

See http://rwsphoto.blogspot.com/2008/02/flat-back-tractor-millipede-polydesmid.html

[lobbygow]

I was taught the common name cherry bugs because of the cherry-like smell

Thanks for the lore Les.

That suggests that "rosey bugs" may also be based on the scent. Cherries and almond extract both have a floral scent. Of course an oenophile (Steve-o?) would be aghast at the thought of those odors being confused.

[Les Jones]

I was taught the common name cherry bugs because of the cherry-like smell (though as you said it smells like almonds to a lot of people - almonds and cherry pits both contain cyanide). Pretty and very common in Tennessee. I always liked finding them at Ijam's when I was leading tours.