Illacme plenipes

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Illacme plenipes
A female I. plenipes with 618 legs
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Myriapoda
Class: Diplopoda
Order: Siphonophorida
Family: Siphonorhinidae
Genus: Illacme
Species:
I. plenipes
Binomial name
Illacme plenipes
Loomis
, 1928
Predicted habitat suitability (maximum in blue) for I. plenipes based on climatic variables

Illacme plenipes is a siphonorhinid millipede found in the central region of the U.S. state of California. It has up to 750 legs. One of three known species in the genus Illacme, it was first seen in 1926, but was not rediscovered until 2005, almost 80 years after its discovery, by Paul Marek, then a Ph.D. student at East Carolina University.[1]

A female I. plenipes with 662 legs

Description

On average, I. plenipes have over 600 legs, twice the average for millipede species, with one recorded specimen having 750 legs.

Eumillipes persephone was described in 2021, which had 1306 legs.[3][4] It is relatively small-bodied among millipedes. Females grow to just over 3 cm; males are slightly smaller and have fewer legs.[2]

Taxonomic history

The species was first discovered in

Orator Cook and formally described by Cook and Harold F. Loomis in 1928.[5] Cook and Loomis described the species without illustrations, and in 1996 Rowland Shelley of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences re-examined specimens and redescribed the species.[6] Marek and colleagues produced a more detailed description of the morphology of I. plenipes in 2012 and provided refined illustrations based on scanning electron micrography.[2]

Classification

Illacme is a member of the order

gonopods.[8]

References

  1. PMID 16760967
    .
  2. ^
    PMID 23372415
    .
  3. PMID 34916527
    .
  4. ^ "We have a new world record holder. Introducing the first millipede with more than 1,000 legs - ABC News". amp.abc.net.au. Retrieved 2021-12-18.
  5. doi:10.5479/si.00963801.72-2714.1
    .
  6. ^ Shelley, Rowland M. (1996). "The milliped order Siphonophorida in the United States and northern Mexico" (PDF). Myriapodologica. 4 (4): 21–33. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-07-31. Retrieved 2019-03-13.
  7. PMID 27833431
    .
  8. PMID 34916527
    .

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Illacme plenipes.
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