(left to right) Paul Marek, Jackson Means, Katy Lawler, Nina Zegler and Elizabeth Francis
On Friday, we collected millipedes on Brush Mountain near Blacksburg, Virginia. We found the genera Narceus, Pseudopolydesmus, Apheloria, Rudiloria, and Nannaria. Other fascinating discoveries included several species of plethodontid salamanders, a large imperial moth caterpillar, a giant crayfish, cryptocercid cockroaches, and an aggregation of dancing Beech blight aphids.
Parasitic wasps in the family Figitidae (Eucoilinae), top male – bottom female.
Jamie Wahls, graduate student here in the Department of Entomology at Virginia Tech working in Tom Kuhar’s Vegetable Entomology Lab, recently visited our lab with some of his parasitoid wasps. This is an image of an unidentified species of figitid wasp, and fruit fly parasitoid, that we captured with our microphotography system.
(Canon 6D, 65 mm lens, 3x, 1/125s, f5.6 – stack of 10 images)
Beautiful Millipedes
I dreamed I am a millipede
So beautiful and happy indeed
What genus to be?
Well, let’s see!
Brachoria, Motyxia or Illacme
Each with their own species
Some with colors bright
Some glow at night
Brachoria, with species of 34
Living in the Appalachian forest floor
Colors of orange, yellow, violet, red
Snug under leaves in a burrow bed
Motyxia, bioluminescent glow
In the dark a crawling show
Species of toxic 8
Searching for a cyanide mate
Illacme plenipes, leggiest of all
Rediscovered by Rob and Paul
750 and 666 legs plentiful
Such a wonderful spectacle!
*Poem contributed by the laboratory’s poet laureate and my dad, Bob Marek. When he is not writing poetry, Bob enjoys studying the U.S. Constitution and reading the New York Times. He is also volunteer at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and Fieldstone Farm Therapeutic Riding Center.
A quarter pinwheel of millipedes of the species Brachycybe lecontii Wood, 1864
A murder of crows, a murmuration of starlings…a pinwheel of millipedes? Last week, Dr. Matt Kasson, his student Cameron, and I went on an expedition to find the millipede Brachycybe lecontii. The picture shown above is an aggregation of about 15 individuals on a decaying piece of wood that we discovered in Buchanan County, Virginia (there are 10 or so small juveniles hidden beneath the adults). Often, Brachycybe are found in these aggregations where individuals are arranged radially with their heads facing a common center and tails diverging outwards (also shown here).
These millipedes are blind, slow-moving and eat fungus. They are also fascinating biologically:
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