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Millipedes are a group of arthropods that are characterised by having two pairs of jointed legs on most body segments; they are known scientifically as the class Diplopoda, the name derived from this feature. Each double-legged segment is a result of two single segments fused together. Most millipedes have very elongated cylindrical or flattened bodies with more than 20 segments, while pill millipedes are shorter and can roll into a tight ball. Although the name "millipede" derives from Latin for "thousand feet", no species was known to have 1,000 or more until the discovery in 2020 of Eumillipes persephone, which can have over 1,300 legs. There are approximately 12,000 named species classified into 16 orders and around 140 families, making Diplopoda the largest class of myriapods, an arthropod group which also includes centipedes and other multi-legged creatures.
In evolutionary biology, mimicry is an evolved resemblance between an organism and another object, often an organism of another species. Mimicry may evolve between different species, or between individuals of the same species. Often, mimicry functions to protect a species from predators, making it an anti-predator adaptation. Mimicry evolves if a receiver perceives the similarity between a mimic and a model and as a result changes its behaviour in a way that provides a selective advantage to the mimic. The resemblances that evolve in mimicry can be visual, acoustic, chemical, tactile, or electric, or combinations of these sensory modalities. Mimicry may be to the advantage of both organisms that share a resemblance, in which case it is a form of mutualism; or mimicry can be to the detriment of one, making it parasitic or competitive. The evolutionary convergence between groups is driven by the selective action of a signal-receiver or dupe. Birds, for example, use sight to identify palatable insects and butterflies, whilst avoiding the noxious ones. Over time, palatable insects may evolve to resemble noxious ones, making them mimics and the noxious ones models. In the case of mutualism, sometimes both groups are referred to as "co-mimics". It is often thought that models must be more abundant than mimics, but this is not so. Mimicry may involve numerous species; many harmless species such as hoverflies are Batesian mimics of strongly defended species such as wasps, while many such well-defended species form Müllerian mimicry rings, all resembling each other. Mimicry between prey species and their predators often involves three or more species.
Batesian mimicry is a form of mimicry where a harmless species has evolved to imitate the warning signals of a harmful species directed at a predator of them both. It is named after the English naturalist Henry Walter Bates, after his work on butterflies in the rainforests of Brazil.
The viceroy is a North American butterfly. It was long thought to be a Batesian mimic of the monarch butterfly, but since the viceroy is also distasteful to predators, it is now considered a Müllerian mimic instead.
Müllerian mimicry is a natural phenomenon in which two or more well-defended species, often foul-tasting and sharing common predators, have come to mimic each other's honest warning signals, to their mutual benefit. The benefit to Müllerian mimics is that predators only need one unpleasant encounter with one member of a set of Müllerian mimics, and thereafter avoid all similar coloration, whether or not it belongs to the same species as the initial encounter. It is named after the German naturalist Fritz Müller, who first proposed the concept in 1878, supporting his theory with the first mathematical model of frequency-dependent selection, one of the first such models anywhere in biology.
Heliconius comprises a colorful and widespread genus of brush-footed butterflies commonly known as the longwings or heliconians. This genus is distributed throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the New World, from South America as far north as the southern United States. The larvae of these butterflies eat passion flower vines (Passifloraceae). Adults exhibit bright wing color patterns which signal their distastefulness to potential predators.
Glomerida is an order of pill-millipedes found primarily in the Northern Hemisphere. Also known as northern pill millipedes, they superficially resemble pill-bugs or woodlice, and can enroll into a protective ball. They have twelve body segments, 17 to 19 pairs of legs, and males have enlarged rear legs involved in mating. The order includes about 30 genera and at least 280 species, including Glomeris marginata, the common European pill-millipede. The order contains members in Europe, South-east Asia and the Americas from California to Guatemala. Although historically considered closely related with the similar sphaerotheriidans that also enroll, some DNA evidence suggest they may be more closely related to glomeridesmidans, a poorly known order that does not enroll.
Emsleyan mimicry, also called Mertensian mimicry, describes an unusual type of mimicry where a deadly prey mimics a less dangerous species.
Polydesmida is the largest order of millipedes, containing approximately 3,500 species, including all the millipedes reported to produce hydrogen cyanide (HCN). Polydesmids grow and develop through a series of moults, adding segments until they reach a fixed number in the adult stage, which is usually the same for a given sex in a given species, at which point the moulting and the addition of segments and legs stop. This mode of development, known as teloanamorphosis, distinguishes this order from most other orders of millipedes, which usually continue to moult as adults, developing through either euanamorphosis or hemianamorphosis.
Xystodesmidae is a family of millipedes. Its members often have very small distributional areas, with many species only known from a single locality. They are found across the northern hemisphere, with peak diversity in the Appalachian Mountains, where one-third of the 300 or so species occur. They are particularly abundant in deciduous broadleaf forests in the Mediterranean Basin, Africa, Asia, Central and North America, and Russia. Information on basic taxonomy is scant for this family; for example, it is estimated that the genus Nannaria contains over 200 species, but only 25 were described as of 2006. By 2022, 78 species in Nannaria have been described.
Motyxia is a genus of cyanide-producing millipedes that are endemic to the southern Sierra Nevada, Tehachapi, and Santa Monica mountain ranges of California. Motyxias are blind and produce the poison cyanide, like all members of the Polydesmida. All species have the ability to glow brightly: some of the few known instances of bioluminescence in millipedes.
Xystocheir is a genus of millipedes in the family Xystodesmidae. The genus is endemic to California in the United States, where it is distributed in the Coast Ranges and the Sierra Nevada.
Parafontaria is a genus of "flat-backed" millipedes consisting of 13 species native to Japan, where they are referred to as train millipedes. This is because some species exhibit periodical swarming behavior during which large numbers congregate and can impact train passage when this congregation occurs on tracks. Documentation of this event goes back to 1920. Individuals vary from around 3.5 to 6 cm as adults, and feed on leaf litter as well as soil, making them comparable to earthworms in facilitating decomposition and soil nutrient cycling.
Apheloria is a genus of flat-backed millipedes in the family Xystodesmidae, occurring in the central and southeastern United States, and ranging as far north as southern Quebec, Canada. They are aposematically colored in black and contrasting reds and yellows, and some species in the Appalachian Mountains resemble species of Brachoria where they co-occur, a phenomenon known as Müllerian mimicry.
Brachoria dentata, the Pennington Gap mimic millipede, is an Appalachian mimic millipede in the Xystodesmidae family.
Pleuroloma flavipes, commonly known as the traveling cherry millipede, is a species of flat-backed millipede in the family Xystodesmidae. It has the widest distribution of any species of xystodesmid millipede and is found in eastern North America from southeastern North Dakota, eastward to Connecticut, and southward to North Carolina, northern Louisiana, and southern Texas. Pleuroloma flavipes millipedes are occasionally observed in large aggregations of individuals where they appear to move en masse in a certain direction, hence the common name "wandering cherry millipede". In a report from 1950, an aggregation of about 6,000 individuals were encountered on a single bridge at McCormick's Creek State Park, Indiana. The species is extremely variable in coloration, and converges in appearance with several species of Apheloria and Brachoria as a result of mimicry.
The genus Nannaria, commonly known as twisted-claw millipedes, is a genus of millipedes in the family Xystodesmidae first described by Ralph Chamberlin in 1918. In 2022, entomologists Derek Hennen, Jackson Means and Paul Marek discovered and described 17 new species, which expanded the size of Nannaria to 78, making it the largest genus of Xystodesmidae.
Cherokia Chamberlin, 1949 is a genus consisting of a single species, Cherokia georgiana. Commonly known as the wrinkled flat-backed millipede, this species belongs to the order Polydesmida and the family Xystodesmidae. It inhabits forests in the southeastern United States, particularly those with hemlock, maple, tulip poplar, rhododendron, cedar, and spruce-fir trees.
In evolutionary biology, mimicry in vertebrates is mimicry by a vertebrate of some model, deceiving some other animal, the dupe. Mimicry differs from camouflage as it is meant to be seen, while animals use camouflage to remain hidden. Visual, olfactory, auditory, biochemical, and behavioral modalities of mimicry have been documented in vertebrates.
Nannaria swiftae, also known as the Swift twisted-claw millipede or Taylor Swift's millipede, is a species of millipede in the family Xystodesmidae. It is found only in the Appalachian mountains of the U.S. state of Tennessee. It was discovered and described in 2022 by entomologists Derek Hennen, Jackson Means and Paul Marek, who expanded the genus Nannaria to 78 species. They named the species in honor of American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift.
References
- ↑ Marek, Paul E.; Bond, Jason E. (2006). "Phylogenetic systematics of the colorful, cyanide-producing millipedes of Appalachia (Polydesmida, Xystodesmidae, Apheloriini) using a total evidence Bayesian approach". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 41 (3): 704–729. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2006.05.043. PMID 16876439.
- 1 2 Marek, Paul E. (2010). "A revision of the Appalachian millipede genus Brachoria Chamberlin, 1939 (Polydesmida: Xystodesmidae: Apheloriini)". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 159 (4): 817–889. doi: 10.1111/j.1096-3642.2010.00633.x .
- ↑ Marek, P. E.; Bond, J. E. (2009). "A Mullerian mimicry ring in Appalachian millipedes". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 106 (24): 9755–9760. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0810408106 . PMC 2700981 . PMID 19487663.
