Exoskelos
Arachnosquire
- Joined
- Sep 15, 2017
- Messages
- 137
Here lately I've been going out into the woods almost nightly to look for millipedes, and have had no luck. Somewhere around May 10th I finally spotted a Narceus, after only finding Oxidus gracilis and tons of parajulids. It's the first time I've seen them outside this year, so I charted it in my notebook.
Since then, my journeys have increased, I've been going farther into the woods than I usually do, and have taken my camera with me to document the different species I find. The early summer thunderstorms have Apheloria virginiensis corrugata surfacing in such swarms to make me nauseous before I even see them.
A week ago after a rain, I ventured a two mile trek towards some old growth woods I knew of, and spotted a lot of native millipedes on the road, mostly Apheloria, but also Abacion sp., and either Auturus evides or Euryurus leachii, maybe both. I'm not sure of exact species since I'm not good with identifying the small ones. At least a dozen Abacion were camped out around an anthill feeding on ants, I wish I had taken a photo of them. I did get photos of several Apheloria virginiensis corrugata crossing the road, but I forgot to set my camera to macro, so the photos are blurry.
I finally arrived to the good searching area, after being distracted by all the other millipede species along the way, my real goal was to find some Narceus americanus. It was getting quite dark, and there had been black bear sightings near my location, I was about to turn back. I knew the darker it became, the better a chance I would find one, and I found a large specimen with relatively normal coloration, which I named Princess. Here she is, in the millipede tub.
The reason for that royal name, is it was just barely smaller than the Matriarch, the oddly colored brood mother of almost my entire Narceus colony. While transferring it out from the collection container, the newly aquired Princess blasted me with benzoquinones. It had climbed up my arm, I gently pushed it along the side to get it from my arm into the main bin, and the pungent aroma of the quinones hit my nostrils, and got my fingers. I guess my very careful treatment was not royal enough, I've collected hundreds of millipedes from various locations in OH, KY, and WV, yet none of them ever got me with their defensive secretions. First ever millipede burn
all the red area on my fingertips has since peeled off like a bad sunburn, and its been a week. I'll be wearing gloves from now on.
Since then, my journeys have increased, I've been going farther into the woods than I usually do, and have taken my camera with me to document the different species I find. The early summer thunderstorms have Apheloria virginiensis corrugata surfacing in such swarms to make me nauseous before I even see them.
A week ago after a rain, I ventured a two mile trek towards some old growth woods I knew of, and spotted a lot of native millipedes on the road, mostly Apheloria, but also Abacion sp., and either Auturus evides or Euryurus leachii, maybe both. I'm not sure of exact species since I'm not good with identifying the small ones. At least a dozen Abacion were camped out around an anthill feeding on ants, I wish I had taken a photo of them. I did get photos of several Apheloria virginiensis corrugata crossing the road, but I forgot to set my camera to macro, so the photos are blurry.
I finally arrived to the good searching area, after being distracted by all the other millipede species along the way, my real goal was to find some Narceus americanus. It was getting quite dark, and there had been black bear sightings near my location, I was about to turn back. I knew the darker it became, the better a chance I would find one, and I found a large specimen with relatively normal coloration, which I named Princess. Here she is, in the millipede tub.
The reason for that royal name, is it was just barely smaller than the Matriarch, the oddly colored brood mother of almost my entire Narceus colony. While transferring it out from the collection container, the newly aquired Princess blasted me with benzoquinones. It had climbed up my arm, I gently pushed it along the side to get it from my arm into the main bin, and the pungent aroma of the quinones hit my nostrils, and got my fingers. I guess my very careful treatment was not royal enough, I've collected hundreds of millipedes from various locations in OH, KY, and WV, yet none of them ever got me with their defensive secretions. First ever millipede burn
all the red area on my fingertips has since peeled off like a bad sunburn, and its been a week. I'll be wearing gloves from now on.
