One Thousand Tiny Feet

[best appreciated at full size against black]

I would like all of you to meet my little friend, who lives down near the Rogue River! I disturbed his slumber when I carefully overturned a rotting log in hopes of making an awesome discovery to capture! Isn't this little guy adorable?!

Millipedes, which are closely related to centipedes, are poisonous, though most aren't much of a threat to humans. It's best to never touch any of them, just in case. There are about 10,000 species of millipedes throughout the world (8,000 centipedes) and they are predominantly scavengers, whereas centipedes are predators. Here's somthing I didn't know: millipedes don't have 1,000 legs and centipedes don't have 100!! Millipedes may have as few as 36 legs or as many as 400, though one species does have 750 legs (Centipedes: 20-300 legs) And, they only have odd-numbered pairs of legs, for instance 15 pairs or 17 pairs, but never 16!! WOW! If you are fascinated and would like to know more, Wiki has a great page right here! :) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millipede

This image was taken in February, 2012.