katrinabauermeister
Millipede Defense Mechanisms
I took this picture while helping with some gardening in Chapel Hill, NC. I struggled to come up with the exact species of this millipede, I figure out that this millipede is most likely in the Polydesmida family. Millipedes are an important food source in the food chain, especially to beetles, shrews, hedgehogs, rodents, frogs, lizards, birds and turtles. Ants and spiders, in particular, avoid this kind of arthropod due to their unique defense mechanisms. Although we haven’t really started talking about predation in class, I found this to be a very interesting find. The Polydesmida order, also know as flat-backed millipedes, are know for their amazing defense mechanisms or predator defenses. The most common form of defense that millipedes are almost always thought to refer to when alarmed is to curl into a ball. Many animals use this defense or a form similar for predators, either playing dead, retreating into their shell, or curling up into a ball. Surprisingly though, this isn’t the millipedes main form of defense. Millipedes, when provoked by predators, commonly secrete hydrogen cyanide gas to repel predators. This extremely harmful gas was also commonly used as chemical warfare during World War I and World War II.
Millipede Defense Mechanisms
I took this picture while helping with some gardening in Chapel Hill, NC. I struggled to come up with the exact species of this millipede, I figure out that this millipede is most likely in the Polydesmida family. Millipedes are an important food source in the food chain, especially to beetles, shrews, hedgehogs, rodents, frogs, lizards, birds and turtles. Ants and spiders, in particular, avoid this kind of arthropod due to their unique defense mechanisms. Although we haven’t really started talking about predation in class, I found this to be a very interesting find. The Polydesmida order, also know as flat-backed millipedes, are know for their amazing defense mechanisms or predator defenses. The most common form of defense that millipedes are almost always thought to refer to when alarmed is to curl into a ball. Many animals use this defense or a form similar for predators, either playing dead, retreating into their shell, or curling up into a ball. Surprisingly though, this isn’t the millipedes main form of defense. Millipedes, when provoked by predators, commonly secrete hydrogen cyanide gas to repel predators. This extremely harmful gas was also commonly used as chemical warfare during World War I and World War II.