Narceus americanus magnified
Last Saturday we visited Cunningham Falls State Park near Frederick, Maryland. It was foggy and drizzly and there were big millipedes everywhere.
This is Narceus americanus, a native and common inhabitant of the woods around here. The ones on the fallen trunks seemed to have been eating the stuff growing on the rotting wood. Here is a close-up of the head of one. Note the compound eyes.
I thought the weather was also perfect for gastropods, but after more than an hour of looking all I could find was one slug.
4 comments:
Ah, without question the best millipede portrait I've ever seen!
Nice one Aydin!
Susan J. Hewitt
I didn't know we had those around here! At first the last pic made me shudder, but on second look it is rather pretty in a 'I don't want to touch this' way.
This makes my skin crawl... lol. :p
As an undergraduate, I was told that at a gorge near Cornell where the substrate was broken shale, and Earthworms couldn't live, these dudes were the primary decomposers of leaf litter, to the tune of 250,000/acre.
Post a Comment