A new species of millipedes has been discovered by experts that's sure to fuel some nightmares and make your skin crawl. The 0.8-inch insect has been found lurking in the unexplored marble caves of California's Sequoia National Park. Named Illacme tobini, this particular creepy crawly sports 414 legs, an above average leg count compared to most of its relatives.
Millipede's Four Penises Are Modified Legs, Experts Say
But the legs are just the teaser. This new species is covered with silk-secreting hairs, has a strange-looking mouth that experts has yet to determine its function, and has a body armor which houses 200 poison glands, the type of which is still unknown. What's particularly disturbing, however, is that the arthropod has four reproductive appendages that experts believed to have developed over time from the insect's hundred limbs.
Illacme tobini was first found by cave biologist Jean Krejca in the Lange Cave and preserved the creature in ethanol. The biologist later sent the discovery to diplopodologists Bill Shear and Paul Marek at the Virginia Tech, reported the Live Science. Shortly after receiving the specimen, the two quickly realized that they have a new species of millipedes on their hands and is, in fact, a relative of Earth's leggiest animal, Illacme Plenipes.
New Species Of Millipedes The Only Specimen To Have Been Found
"I never would have expected that a second species of the leggiest animal on the planet would be discovered in a cave 150 miles away," said Marek. Since the discovery of tobini, scientists have been adamant in finding another one like it but so far the specimen by Krejca is the only millipede of its kind to have been spotted so far. As such, scientists are having a difficult time in determining how widespread the species is, although they believed its range is fairly limited, according to the Daily Mail.
Tobini is able to transfer sperm through its four penises, which are actually modified legs called gonopods meaning "genital legs." These reproductive appendages are covered in spikes and shovel-like projections that transport the reproductive cells from male to female. Tobini is only the second millipede discovered belonging to the Illacme species.
