a highlight of my Singapore trip was this fabulous siphonophorid millipede! this super-leggy animal is one of a relatively small group of millipedes to evolve sucking mouthparts. most siphonophoridans I鈥檝e met are tiny but this one was pretty big at some 4cm long.
its face manages to be so cute with just two chubby antennae and a piercing beak! these probably feed on fungal hyphae or some sort of biofilms.
one of the most impressive animals I met this year was a huge platyrhacid millipede, found chugging through some bamboo leaf litter in Malaysia.
he was a pleasant weight to hold in the hand, but spread out over so many gentle, graceful legs. the video offers a nice look at his eyeless face鈥攁ll polydesmidan millipedes lack eyes.
I only hung onto this animated spinal cord for about thirty seconds before setting him back in the leaves, but I recall this encounter so vividly. a truly memorable creature