Journal

An Intimate Millipede Moment

on
3 December 2010

Found a lot of Yellow-Spotted Millipedes (Anoplodesmus sp.) on the ground while searching for butterflies, and noticed this pair having an intimate moment. At first, I thought they were centipedes. But on closer inspection, it would resemble a millipede once the extraneous yellow protrusions were not there.

Ok more sex education in this blog entry… so that you would understand what’s going on in the pictures. 😛 The male millipede’s sexual organs are called “gonopods”, located three segments begind the head. When mating, the male will transfer a hard sperm package called a spermatorphore into the female spermathecae.

Yellow-Spotted Millipedes (Anoplodesmus sp.?) - DSC_9972#1 Mmmm… stealing a kiss! lol

Yellow-Spotted Millipedes (Anoplodesmus sp.?) - DSC_9992#2 Trying to get into position. The female was running around but once the male tried to mount her, she stopped moving and allowed him to do his work!

Yellow-Spotted Millipedes (Anoplodesmus sp.?) - DSC_9998#3 Front view. Female looks a bit shy here.

Yellow-Spotted Millipedes (Anoplodesmus sp.?) - DSC_9999#4 Moving around. They didn’t keep still at all, got a lot of blur pictures because of that.

Yellow-Spotted Millipedes (Anoplodesmus sp.?) - DSC_0004#5 Closer view of the front

Yellow-Spotted Millipedes (Anoplodesmus sp.?) - DSC_0006#6 Getting impatient.. when are they really doing it???

Yellow-Spotted Millipedes (Anoplodesmus sp.?) - DSC_0024#7 Decided to do face-hugging instead? Looks like a wrestling match!

The complete album can be viewed here.

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NICKY BAY
Singapore

Hi my name is Nicky Bay. I am a macro photographer, instructor and book author, travelling the world to document the vast micro biodiversity that nature has to offer. Follow my updates and discover with me the incredible beauty and science behind our planet's micro creatures!

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