Have You Ever Taken a Walk with This Creature?

I’m sure you’ve seen a Monarch butterfly before, right? Did you know that their bright orange color is a warning to birds that they taste bad? Well there’s a millipede who does the same thing–the yellow spotted millipede. This millipede is about two inches long, black, with yellow spotted down the sides. When alarmed, this millipede exudes hydrogen cyanide, which smells strongly like almond. It gives the message to potential predators–” Don’t mess with me!” Even though the cyanide is enough to kill small birds and rodents, it isn’t harmful to people. Millipedes are immune to the cyanide, converting it into harmless chemicals.

If you’ve never seen one while out walking, here’s your chance to watch one for a minute. They are common here in western North Carolina, often seen crawling along the ground, checking things out.

Some 12,000 different species of millipedes live on Earth with us, if you can imagine! And scientists suspect the number is MUCH higher, some guessing it should be more like 80,000!

If you want to learn more, here is a great article about this millipede from Cool Green Science.