Millipede!
By popular demand, here are some pictures of Sam’s millipede.
I don’t know the creature’s sex, that is, I don’t know if it’s a “Millie” or a “Petey,” so I’ve just been calling it “the millipede.”
It’s a Giant Black African Millipede. It’s about nine inches long and generally nocturnal, which is why it’s hard to get good pictures of it — it usually spends its days curled up in its burrow.
Here, it selects its food from its food trough. Today’s selections are blueberries and a tomato. It selected the tomato. Generally speaking, it will eat just about any vegetables, although my rough observations seem to indicate that it prefers tomatoes, carrots, bananas and red-leaf lettuce. Give it the right food and it snarfs it right up.
Here you can get a good look at its tiny little legs, waving helplessly in the air. Curiously, it doesn’t seem to mind being held like this.
After its big adventure, here it sets about going to bed. It can get nervous under certain circumstances, in which case it will pee on you, but that’s never happened to me. It gets really sluggish every few days, which generally means it’s getting ready to evacuate its bowels. It poops bigger than its head, so I totally sympathize.
Here it is, fast asleep, dreaming its little dreams of crawling around and eating vegetables.
It requires very little care for a creature so large and multi-legged. Some table scraps and a light misting of water seems to just about do it for the day. G’night, millipede!
That is one crazy-enormous inscect, I teyy ya what…
Crazy COOL as a result, but still crazy-enormous…
Poops bigger than it’s head, eh? Well, I try to learn one new thing every day and sadly, I think this was it.
Any creature that poops bigger then its head is to be respected. I’ll never complain about being constipated again.
You know, these photos scared me more than the photo someone else on my flist posted of a buttplug made in the likeness of L. Ron Hubbard.
I hope you’re happy.
Creepy…but cool…but creepy… I think I’m stuck in a loop.
The death of Bucky has obviously driven you to very odd things, like touching, looking at, or feeding millipedes.
THAT LIVES IN YOUR HOUSE????
Okay I am so not ever staying in your house.
Well, it has a Critter-Keeper, it’s not like it runs around loose or anything.
There is no cage which could keep such a creature at a safe distance.
Believe me, unless you’re a vegetable or a pile of dirt, you’re perfectly safe.
It watched “The Lady From Shanghai” with me and Todd the other night and made several incisive comments.
All of which had to do with either vegetables or burrowing.
or burrowing into vegetables?
Great. In Los Angeles three hours and already I’ve been rendered obsolete by a millipede. Santa Monica is a cruel mistress.
You’re thinking of the other Monica, Lewinsky. Because, yeah, she is.
Now, if you could only get your hands on a good macro lens and take a pic of its mouth…
To determine sex..
As a zoology major, I could suggest putting several in together and observe nature taking its course. They know.
Otherwise, you have to kill them and dissect out their gonads….
I saw a show where some little monkey or something would grab those, bite its head a little to make it stressed, catch the musk or whatever, and wipe the stuff through its fur. Apparently it functions as an insect repellent?
Or else that’s one seriously bent monkey.
Ever considered writing childrens stories? You turn a great sarcastic phrase that both children and adults would enjoy. I honestly havent enjoyed reading about trials and tribulations of various insects, so much in ages.
After the demise of Bucky, is Sam going to venture into the world of entomology again? How about the Rhinoceros beetle or Goliath beetle? They’d be easy to keep. 🙂
http://www.svcn.com/archives/saratoganews/01.05.00/gifs/cover3-0001.jpg
http://www.cynical-c.com/archives/bloggraphics/beetle2.jpg
Well I did write a cartoon about talking ants, I guess that counts as a children’s story.
We still have three mantises left, and a clutch of snails, and hundreds of pillbugs. We’re not out of the woods with the insects yet.