| The Myriapoda (Millipedes, Centipedes) Featuring the North American Fauna |
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The Myriapods, the World’s Leggiest Animals Rowland M. Shelley, Ph. D.; North Carolina State Museum of Natural Sciences Introduction The myriapods comprise four classes of multi-legged arthropods with at least 18 legs (9 pairs) in adults. Two of the classes, the Diplopoda (millipedes) and Chilopoda (centipedes), include primarily relatively large-bodied, macroscopic organisms that are readily seen by the general public and are addressed in this website. The other two classes, Symphyla and Pauropoda, lack common names and are microscopic organisms that are at most only a few mm in length; they are not covered here. The Diplopoda and Chilopoda are ecologically important classes that occur throughout the temperate and tropical zones of the world and have been unintentionally introduced by man onto most oceanic islands. They are major components of terrestrial ecosystems including even xeric (desert) environments, yet they are poorly known and have been relatively ignored by past and present biologists. Despite this inattention
by professional biologists, myriapods attract considerable interest from the
general public on all continents. Amateur chat lines exist on the Web;
large-bodied millipedes & centipedes are imported from tropical regions of Asia,
Africa, and South America and sold in pet stores throughout the US; and a
substantial number of people engage in husbandry. If one searches for millipedes
or centipedes on a search engine, a host of websites turn up, but much of the
information on them is inaccurate or incomplete. A need exists for a
professionally run website with factually accurate information that is
retrievable by search engines, and this site is designed to fill this
void.
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