Illacme plenipes facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Illacme plenipes
A female I. plenipes with 618 legs
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Subphylum:	Myriapoda
Class:	Diplopoda
Order:	Siphonophorida
Family:	Siphonorhinidae
Genus:	Illacme
Species:	I. plenipes
Binomial name
Illacme plenipes Cook & Loomis, 1928
Predicted habitat suitability (maximum in blue) for I. plenipes based on climatic variables

Illacme plenipes is a special kind of millipede found in central California, United States. It holds the record for having the most legs of any animal on Earth, with some having up to 750 legs!

This amazing creature is one of only two known species in its group, called Illacme. It was first discovered in 1926. However, it wasn't seen again for almost 80 years until Paul Marek rediscovered it in 2005. At that time, he was a student at East Carolina University. He later shared his discovery in a famous science magazine called Nature.

Amazing Legs

Even though no millipede has a thousand legs, Illacme plenipes comes the closest. One millipede of this species was found to have 750 legs! On average, these millipedes have over 600 legs. This is twice as many as the average millipede species.

Despite having so many legs, Illacme plenipes is quite small compared to other millipedes. Female millipedes grow to be just over 3 centimeters long. Males are a bit smaller and usually have fewer legs than the females.

Discovery and Study

This unique millipede was first found in San Benito County, California in 1926. It was discovered by a government scientist named Orator Cook. Cook and another scientist, Harold F. Loomis, officially described the species in 1928.

In 1996, Rowland Shelley from the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences looked at the millipede samples again. He wrote a new description of the species. Later, in 2012, Paul Marek and his team studied I. plenipes in even more detail. They used special microscopes to create very clear pictures of its body. In 2016, Marek and his colleagues found and named a second species in the Illacme group, called Illacme tobini.

What Kind of Animal Is It?

Illacme belongs to a group of millipedes called Siphonophorida and a family called Siphonorhinidae. As mentioned, I. tobini is the other species in this group.

Scientists are still trying to figure out the closest relative of Illacme. One possible relative is a millipede called Nematozonium, which lives in South Africa. They might be related because they both have a long, thin body shape and similar special body parts used for reproduction, called gonopods.

See also

In Spanish: Illacme plenipes para niños