Fave resource for ID?

[GhostMouse]

Hi all!

I have a small colony of isopods that I collected from my yard. I do very little collecting anymore, just let my captive ones breed, but I still like to keep an eye on the locals for funsies, and if I see a particularly interesting and colorful one I might still take it to integrate into the group.

On my last excursion under the garden stones, I found three absolutely minuscule millipedes. They aren't the usual ones I see, those flat-backed little guys that sometimes end up in flowerpots, that have kind of rough/jaggedy edges to their sections, you know the ones. Just cute little plant millis. These three were very rounded and smooth, like the same shape as an ivory or any of those ones that get huge.

I caught them and made them their own tiny "apartment" in a setup basically just like I keep my isopods. They enjoy burrowing under a baby carrot. I basically caught them because I want to know more about them- what are they, do they get bigger than this, are they native, and so on.

I cannot find the slightest information about them. I'm guessing they are some manner of import because looking up millipedes in Michigan brings me to those little flowerpot friends and articles on how to kill them, as most inquiries for "id smol crawly thing plz" are wont to do. Hmph. Why would you want to even if you weren't purposefully keeping them? It's not like they do anything. Oh well.

Anyway so I just... have questions. What are these? Will they grow larger than this? How long does it take them to grow up? One of them could stretch themselves comfortably to full length across a US dime, they're absolutely tiny. I looked at one with my USB microscope, just a very smooth, rounded, somewhat shiny friend with little wiggly antennae. The backyard Man of Mystery.

I'm intrigued, but getting a tad frustrated at my lack of google prowess. When you-alls have an ID question, what's your go to source?

 

[Lucky123]

Hi all!

I have a small colony of isopods that I collected from my yard. I do very little collecting anymore, just let my captive ones breed, but I still like to keep an eye on the locals for funsies, and if I see a particularly interesting and colorful one I might still take it to integrate into the group.

On my last excursion under the garden stones, I found three absolutely minuscule millipedes. They aren't the usual ones I see, those flat-backed little guys that sometimes end up in flowerpots, that have kind of rough/jaggedy edges to their sections, you know the ones. Just cute little plant millis. These three were very rounded and smooth, like the same shape as an ivory or any of those ones that get huge.

I caught them and made them their own tiny "apartment" in a setup basically just like I keep my isopods. They enjoy burrowing under a baby carrot. I basically caught them because I want to know more about them- what are they, do they get bigger than this, are they native, and so on.

I cannot find the slightest information about them. I'm guessing they are some manner of import because looking up millipedes in Michigan brings me to those little flowerpot friends and articles on how to kill them, as most inquiries for "id smol crawly thing plz" are wont to do. Hmph. Why would you want to even if you weren't purposefully keeping them? It's not like they do anything. Oh well.

Anyway so I just... have questions. What are these? Will they grow larger than this? How long does it take them to grow up? One of them could stretch themselves comfortably to full length across a US dime, they're absolutely tiny. I looked at one with my USB microscope, just a very smooth, rounded, somewhat shiny friend with little wiggly antennae. The backyard Man of Mystery.

I'm intrigued, but getting a tad frustrated at my lack of google prowess. When you-alls have an ID question, what's your go to source?

maybe attach a picture so we can look and help you identify

When you-alls have an ID question, what's your go to source?

I usually go to bugguide and just start big from what i know and eventually zone in on the specific species

 

[GhostMouse]

I didn't post photos originally because they're so tiny and generic looking and I didn't get very good shots with the 'scope because nothing likes to hold still under that bright light and they immediately scamper away from it (can't blame them). But here is one I took with the phone cam (hand and baby carrot for scale) and a couple of blurry attempted microscope shots:

(edited to replace the first photo because I posted the wrong one by mistake, this was the slightly better shot of the two)

 

[Lucky123]

I didn't post photos originally because they're so tiny and generic looking and I didn't get very good shots with the 'scope because nothing likes to hold still under that bright light and they immediately scamper away from it (can't blame them). But here is one I took with the phone cam (hand and baby carrot for scale) and a couple of blurry attempted microscope shots:

(edited to replace the first photo because I posted the wrong one by mistake, this was the slightly better shot of the two)

maybe try this link keep clicking on what you think is the best match until you narrow it down, if you dont eventually find a match then go back on up the taxonomic ladder and try again.

 

[Ponerinecat]

Millibase is a bit hard to use effectively but very useful for distribution. Yours looks like a julid millipede, maybe something in parajulidae?

 

[GhostMouse]

maybe try this link keep clicking on what you think is the best match until you narrow it down, if you dont eventually find a match then go back on up the taxonomic ladder and try again.

Wait, I'm sorry, which link?