Tag Archives: cyanide

The cherry millipede

Posted on July 31, 2020 by pmarek

We made this short movie about the cherry millipede, Apheloria virginiensis corrugata. Known from forests in the eastern U.S., the cherry millipede oozes cyanide and feeds on decaying leaves and other detritus.

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The luminous mountain millipedes

Posted on May 8, 2015 by nannaria

This week, we published a study documenting the rediscovery of the millipede Xystocheir bistipita, which turns out to be bioluminescent and a species of Motyxia, the Luminous mountain millipedes (Marek & Moore, 2015). A few folks have asked what the … Continue reading →

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millipede from Blacksburg, VA

Posted on April 22, 2014 by nannaria

Appalachioria separanda calcaria (Blacksburg, VA) Here’s a local cyanide-producing millipede from near Virginia Tech’s campus. In 1959, William Keeton (then a student at VT) described this species based on specimens   collected from Blacksburg, Riner and Radford, Virginia. This species is … Continue reading →

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Cyanide gland dissections

Posted on January 24, 2014 by nannaria

Cyanide gland, expertly dissected from Pachydesmus crassicutis by Tim McCoy. The large balloon shaped reservoir on the left stores the stable precursor mandelonitrile, which is squeezed into the thickened, oval-shaped reaction chamber on the right. In the reaction chamber, mandelonitrile … Continue reading →

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