About gonopods?

[truecreature]

Last night while checking on the millipedes, I was surprised to catch my not yet full-size male M. paralis mating with my only mature female. A little while later when he was walking around, I thought it looked like one of his exo rings had been torn off, but on closer examination I found what must be his gonopods still everted and they were stretching the ring, giving it the impression of having a gap. Now, my only experience with millipede breeding so far has been seeing my N. americanus, which are fairly small, mating a few times so I have no idea if gonopods are supposed to retract right away or if they remain out for a while - so I was a little concerned.

Checking again today, almost 12 hours later they are still out. I don't know if they had mated again earlier or if they were still out from the night before but I'm worried about it. He's been walking around with his head slightly curled under and the legs above the gonopods immobile like he's trying to keep it from touching the dirt. Is it possible it could be a prolapse or some other kind of damage? I really hope not... pretty sure he's my only male out of the four and it's hard to find these guys, plus they take a long time to grow out

 

[Elytra and Antenna]

I would be surprised if he recovered, more so if he could still mate successfully.

 

[dragonfire1577]

maybe this thread would be helpful?
http://arachnoboards.com/threads/african-giant-millipede-gonopods-exposed-and-then-died.233889/

 

[dragonfire1577]

also I wasn't able to locate a single image or bit of info on "M. paralis" are you sure you spelled the species name right? i'm curious about what they look like now haha.

 

[truecreature]

I would be surprised if he recovered, more so if he could still mate successfully.

Bleh, kinda figured that would be the verdict... that's my luck. Have you had this happen before, and/or do you know if there's anything I could attempt to do? Maybe at the very least move him onto moist paper towel so it's not touching dirt?

also I wasn't able to locate a single image or bit of info on "M. paralis" are you sure you spelled the species name right? i'm curious about what they look like now haha.

Thanks for the link! It doesn't look similar to that with all the translucent globby stuff - there's not really much sticking out and it's hard to see actually. There's the pretty tiny almost plant stem-looking gonopods, and at the base where it's coming out of the shell there's one - maybe two - white round bulges at the base. I wish I could take a picture but it'd be impossible with my crappy camera.

The pede is Mardonius parilis, looks like I misspelled it in my OP

 

[Elytra and Antenna]

Don't worry, I think somebody changed the scientific name for this critter again. I've only seen damaged gonopods a few times on wild specimens and there is really no way for it to recover. That doesn't mean it will die but I'll be surprised if it lives another six months.[/QUOTE]

 

[truecreature]

I see - thank you for the input, I appreciate it

 

[Cavedweller]

Do you think you could get us a picture of it? Maybe that'd give us a better idea of the verdict. Good luck with your pede man.

 

[truecreature]

I don't think there's any way I can get a pic of it unfortunately, it's pretty small and was difficult enough seeing it person with all the pede's struggling, let alone trying to capture it with my junk camera at the same time Thank you though