Madagascar Fire Millipede

Sorry, dandoucette, no, he doesn't. It's clearly a millipede, but not a species with which we are familiar.

DenaDaleCrain, keep in mind this spotting was in Madagascar, not Kenya. Does your husband have any idea what this is?

Thanks, MaryOhkwari, for referring readers to the story on my blog. Although I'm a patchwork quilt artist and teacher by occupation, living in "the bush" in Africa for over 20 years has given me some sensitivity to the natural world and I have my own history of animal rescue.

I have this from Wikipedia: "The giant African millipede (Archispirostreptus gigas), known as shongololos (same word spelled differently--this is mine), is the largest species of millipede." My husband is something of an internationally recognized naturalist, and he says he's never seen the Madagascar Fire Millipede in Kenya. You might want to check out the Wiki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millepede. "10,000 species" !!

Okay, thanks for digging more into this. It's possible that Mongabay labelled it wrong, but I will leave it as this for now. I think it might be in the same genus as the red striped, but like you said, maybe there's just not much information on them.

I'm still not exactly convinced that it's that genus, however. I searched that one a bit and while pictures like that came up sometimes, more often they were simply red-striped. Mongabay isn't exactly the best scientific source either. Here's a forum from an arthropod-centered website that gives that genus name to a different millipede: http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthre....

Of course, maybe they're both in the same genus. Unfortunately, with how little millipedes have been studied, there just aren't many good online resources to ID them with...or offline, for that matter. So just make a note of that. I'll see if I can come up with anymore resources that are from more reputable websites in the meantime.

I think I found it. The photo was taken in the same place I saw it. Thanks for the lead with the genus Latimeria.
http://travel.mongabay.com/madagascar/im...

Thanks Mary. It looks like "jongoo" is the Swahili word for millipede, and unfortunately, we're still dealing with common names. So "Mombasa train" could be more than one species of millipede. The one pictured on that page is certainly different than the one I'm looking at that's referred to as "Mombasa train."

http://www.denacrain.com/blog/?p=619

Here ya go.

I've also found pictures of this millipede (or a very similar one) labeled as the genus Aphistogoniulus. However, I think these are incorrectly labeled, as that species seems to be sold as pets and have uniformly red bands.

The Mombasa train is the closest match I've found so far, but like I said, I have no scientific name behind it, which is sort of useless at this point. I could definitely be wrong, since it's supposed to occur in Kenya, and Dan's spotting is from Madagascar. But they might occur in both places. More than that, the only reason I know about this species in the first place is because I saw photos a millipede researcher had, and this one was labeled as such, so I'm inclined to take his word. I think we may have at least gotten it down to family, however.

Mary, could you provide a link to those pictures so that I can see what you're talking about?

Latimeria, I found pictures of The Mombasa Train. It does not have the orange spots on it's back, and it's face is black rather than red.

All right, I have the name for a millipede from East Africa called the red legged millipede, which is a Spirobolid. I haven't been able to find any pictures, so this could be a completely different millipede, but you might be able to find some information out there that will confirm or disprove this one: Metiche tanganyicense.

Hey Dan, I think I know what this species is. Unfortunately, I only know the common name and haven't been able to find more information using only that. But it's in the Order Spirobolida, called The Mombasa Train. It has defensive chemicals (quinones) that can cause burns and blisters in humans.