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Thursday, July 15, 2010

Fascinating Millipedes

Recently A Wandering Mind carried some pictures of the insects mushrooming after the onset of monsoon in Mumbai. Among them there was the scary hoard of centipedes whose one sting would make you weep for hours together. Then I recollected the mild and sober Millipedes, I had photographed while we were at our native place, that is Kerala, during May this year.
See how inquisitive Siddharth  is
On being dropped on the ground
When it was finally released and relieved
One day I found my nephews engaged in some serious exploration in the garden surrounding our ancestral home. They were playing with something, they discovered. Since they were either from Mumbai or Chennai, they were deprived of being closer to nature. While at our home, they had the opportunity of seeing things, their text books talked about. I had a notion that children brought up in cities are devoid of any inquisitiveness but I was proved wrong. Children are  children and they have it ab-initio.

Millipedes, literally means "thousand-legged," although most millipedes do not have  more than 300 legs,are found in all temperate and tropical regions of the world. They rest and hide among leaf fall, soil, or anything rotting for they survive on dead and decaying plant matter. Most species of millipedes are said to be  nocturnally active but in Kerala I found them moving around even during day time. Apart from the ones shown above, I have encountered Millipedes which are pink and dark brown in appearance. Looking them when they are on a move is a real pleasure. They are so majestic.The rhythmic movement of hundreds of legs is worth a watch.

As a means of protection, millipedes have developed unique defense mechanisms for survival. One strategy is to curl up into a spiral. This coil protects the millipede's head and soft underside. Some species of millipedes can also secrete a foul-smelling/terrible tasting fluid through glands located alongside their body, near the legs on each segment. The toxicity of this fluid varies from species to species. For example, the excretions of some species can discolor human skin or irritate the eyes, others are corrosive, and some species even produce cyanide that can repel or kill insect predators.

25 comments:

  1. Oh, I have played many times with these nature friendly creatures in my childhood. But now, if I see them I freak out of fear.

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  2. lovely pics sir! and thanks for 'reversing the time machine' for a while!

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  3. Wonderful photographs on your blogs!
    My chickens won't have anything to do with millipedes. They are fascinating to watch, but you are correct about the foul fluid. I wouldn't want to handle one.

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  4. Good to see these kids being inquisitive and curious at the same time not harming the insect.
    Those ones which have painful bites have their legs far apart and move faster compared to the one above.

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  5. thanks so much for linking back to my blog along with this post! your nephews seem to be as interested in these creepies as my son is! he keeps trying to find out whether the insects will crawl over his shoe, or if he can make them go in a different direction! btw, these look very similar to the ones i see.... just bigger... and i have no idea if the ones we see are poisonous or not! there are so many around, but they dont really seem to bite anyone!

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  6. Children are same every where . Here also they collect not millipedes but caterpilars and grass hoppers. and keep them in a wooden box feed them leaves. our parents however discouraged us from touching these things. In Gwalior white scorpions were a common sight.Remove a stone or pull a cotainer in the kitchen and you see on large or small scorpion. Centipedesa re equally dangerous.

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  7. आपका हिंदी का ब्लॉग कहां गया । हां वहां खजूर जैसे पाम होते हैं पर उनके फल लगते नही ।

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  8. Hi PNS:)

    Very interesting information. I have seen centipedes curling themselves when I pushed them.
    It is truly amazing to see them walk. A marvel of nature and they have wonderful ways of self preservation. Lovely photos.

    Best wishes:)
    Joseph

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  9. Nice captures! I like the detailed information. I have seen these type of insects near our area. They have dark red and black colors.

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  10. Your blog renewed my childhood memories. I also used to play with insects when I was a kid...
    Your pictures are great and the articles are wonderful...

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  11. Hi P.N.! Amazing post! Always learning...

    Blogtrotter Two has gone deeply in Sardinia... Enjoy and have a great weekend!

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  12. As you say, kids would be kids! That round millipede picture looks quite good.

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  13. बहुत रोचक पोस्ट है धन्यवाद।

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  14. wow! amazing :)

    http://liberalflorence.blogspot.com/

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  15. Wow very good blog...I like all of your articles...Too good explanations...Thanks for to publishing such a good articles...

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  16. Antlions, caterpillars, insects... how wonderful to see that today's children too could be fascinated by them!

    Thanks for visiting my blog.

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  17. millipides, ah! in our times, we just watched and got more details from elders, which was usually not right in these cases. now they (kids) would run to the pc and check it out on Google... kids are experts by the age 12...

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  18. That cyanide part was a bit of surprise, thanks for the information.

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  19. This is my first visit to your blog.. and wow! I liked it.. it is informative as well as humane. Will continue visiting it.

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  20. Hi P.N.! Thanks for the comment! After an odd post, Blogtrotter Two has a bit of Catalonia in Sardinia... ;)
    Take pleasure in it and have a stunning week ahead!

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  21. Hi PNS:)

    Greetings and good wishes:)

    The street you have mentioned in my post is Princess street in Fort Kochi. The Jew st. is in Mattancerry.

    Best wishes:)
    Joseph

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  22. Dear PNS,
    B'ful pics!
    And people named Siddharth are inquisitive by nature!
    Gautam Buddha, anyone?
    Ashish

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  23. Dear Sir,
    I was unaware that you write different things on wordpress and blogspot, so missed some of the posts.
    Now I saw this one, and fortunately clicked it.
    Interesting post.

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  24. I am totally fascinated by your blog... great pictures and wonderful articles on awesome topics.
    Thanks for encouraging my daughter's efforts

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