Monday, December 31, 2007

Fascinating Millipedes (not a mammal)


(click to make the photos larger)

I know we are focusing on mammals this term but we had a visitor yesterday that is worth a post. We were cleaning up our snowy, wet things and found a millipede on the towel that we had under our gloves drying on a rack.


It was fascinating to watch him crawl around and his many legs were really interesting.

Here's some information from the Handbook of Nature Study, page 448 in the invertebrates section:
"Millipede, Spirobolus. These animals live in damp places and feed chiefly on decaying matter."

I have no idea how he got into the house but it was fun to learn about him. Here is a little video of him moving around.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom