She's not impressed, scarlet

[kjgalaxy]

So I'm fairly new at millies. I've got my two black african gigas in 10 gallon, my North American varieties in a small container, my desert millipedes in a small container, and then all the rest in a 5 gallon tank. So I've got 1 feather that's survived (out of 3), 3 ivories, 2 bumblebees (lost the first 2 I got), 1 scarlet (out of 2), 2 thai, 2 olive gigas (still quite small), and a few others. I just rearranged the tank a bit, putting in a new stick for them and giving them a little topography of a higher rear area and lower front area. The ivories are generally really active. So tonight I'm looking in on them and I saw my scarlet (boy, apparently) flirting with my smallest ivory. Pity I can't get babies from the match!

 

[Abel]

cool I keep scarlets too

 

[mickiem]

That looks like a male Ivory so you have lots of confusion all the way around. Beautiful Millie's! I agree, scarlets are wonderful.

 

[kjgalaxy]

That looks like a male Ivory so you have lots of confusion all the way around. Beautiful Millie's! I agree, scarlets are wonderful.

Really? I haven't quite got the hang of spotting the lack of one leg set to identify a male! I took a handful of pics. I'll go back and look and see about the ivory, see if I can tell. Thanks!

 

[mickiem]

Really? I haven't quite got the hang of spotting the lack of one leg set to identify a male! I took a handful of pics. I'll go back and look and see about the ivory, see if I can tell. Thanks!

No, not the legs! Some species are sexually dimorphic. If you look at the black stripes, they are widened around the 6-7th stripe back; some call this a 'hood'. Just on the male. Ivories and Narceus are two species that exhibit this. It's easy to sex those once you see it.

For what it's worth, when I try to sex others, I put them in a clear plastic box lid and hold it above me. Sometimes I take a photo to study a still millipede. Works for me.

 

[kjgalaxy]

No, not the legs! Some species are sexually dimorphic. If you look at the black stripes, they are widened around the 6-7th stripe back; some call this a 'hood'. Just on the male. Ivories and Narceus are two species that exhibit this. It's easy to sex those once you see it.

For what it's worth, when I try to sex others, I put them in a clear plastic box lid and hold it above me. Sometimes I take a photo to study a still millipede. Works for me.

I have so much to learn! That's so good to know! thanks!

 

[ErinM31]

Yep, with some millipedes there are characteristics much easier to spot than the missing legs! I took this photo of a female and male Ivory side-by-side (their heads are at the bottom) to illustrate what @mickiem is describing: