• Home
  • About Alex Wild
  • Articles
  • Galleries
  • Myrmecology News

Myrmecos Blog

the little things matter

Feeds:
Posts
Comments
« Sunday Night Movie: Miniscule flies with spaghetti
Jack Longino unveils the new 2009 line of Pheidole species »

Millipedes that glow in the dark

November 9, 2009 by myrmecos

The following is a guest post from millipede expert Paul Marek.

caption

The eerie glow of a Motyxia millipede (photo by P. Marek)

I study millipedes in the family Xystodesmidae (order Polydesmida).  These millipedes contain hydrogen cyanide as a defensive chemical and use aposematic coloration to warn predators of their toxicity.  Coloration patterns in these species include bright yellows, oranges, reds, and violet.

One nocturnal genus in this family, Motyxia, known only from California, does not display conspicuous coloration.  These millipedes do something even more remarkable—they produce a green bioluminescent glow at a dominant wavelength of 500 nm by way of a biological source of light in their exoskeleton.  Scientists have speculated that the emitted light could be a sexual signal to attract mates, or an aposematic warning glow to announce the presence of a cyanide-based chemical defense.

Motyxiasequoiae29

Motyxia sequoiae by daylight (photo by P. Marek)

So far as is known, millipedes in the order Polydesmida all are blind, suggesting that the predator-warning hypothesis might be more likely.  The source of light in Motyxia is a chemical called pterin, first discovered for its role in butterfly pigmentation but perhaps independently evolved in these unique millipedes to function like a luciferin molecule, similar to the well-known firefly luciferin (the structure of the analogous luciferase molecule for Motyxia is unknown).  Other than the genus Motyxia, there are no other confirmed accounts of bioluminescence among millipedes.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

Posted in Nature, Science | Tagged bioluminescence, chilopoda, Millipedes | 5 Comments

5 Responses

  1. on November 9, 2009 at 1:21 pm jason

    Fascinating. Bioluminescence never ceases to intrigue me.


  2. on November 9, 2009 at 7:54 pm Aydin

    Can the millipedes turn their light on & off or is it always on?


  3. on November 11, 2009 at 9:38 am Paul Marek

    Hi Aydin,
    Yes! The millipedes can turn their light on & off. The intensity also seems to vary with stimulation. If I find a dark one on the forest floor it will often times glow brighter just by picking it up.
    Paul


  4. on June 25, 2010 at 6:37 pm Dave Rawson

    A few years ago when we were camping in central California near Mountain Home above Springville, I returned from a nighttime visit to the toilets to find an astonishing ghost army moving as if in mechanized formation.

    They glowed white (not green), were about 8 inches long and almost 1.5 inches across. Their legs churned along in curling wave patterns and they were at rigidly geometric intervals from each other, each at the apex of a diamond formation near 40 feet long and maybe 25 feet wide, a whole army, as I say, seeming to glide toward (I assumed) a nearby creek. Their unit speed was in consistent unison.

    I was able to see about 8 or 9 but was conscious (imagined? reasoned?) this was a large springtime movement of the population. Kinda scared me at first, but they were oblivious to us or our camp or fire.

    I’d never heard of such a thing, but then I’d never heard of thousands of spiders dropping from the trees until I camped at Yosemite one year.

    Spring is a literally wondrous time of year in the less civilized areas.


  5. on June 15, 2011 at 10:22 pm Sidrah

    Wow, that’s just amazing. I have never heard about glowing centipedes before. Got great information from your blog, thanks for sharing.



Comments are closed.


  • This blog is an archive; the Myrmecos blog has moved.

    Please update your bookmarks!
  • Alex’s Galleries

    alexanderwild.com

  • Recent Photos

    Foggy morning in Val d'Orcia, Tuscany2016-09-11_19-08-29-4Tanzen in KölnEL BAÑUELO - Granada (Explore)山漆の花咲く頃
    More Photos
  • Biology Links

    • Tree of Life
    • Understanding Evolution
  • Blogroll

    • Ainsley Vs Livejournal
    • Ammonite
    • Anna’s Bee World
    • Archetype
    • Arthropoda blog
    • Backyard Arthropod Project
    • Beetles in the Bush
    • biodiversity in focus
    • Bug Dreams
    • Bug Eric
    • Bug Girl’s Blog
    • Burrard-Lucas Photoblog
    • Catalogue of Organisms
    • Creature Cast
    • Dan Heller
    • Debbie's Insect Blog
    • Dechronization
    • Drawing the MotMot
    • Entomoblog
    • Evolving Thoughts
    • Fall to Climb
    • Generant
    • Historias de Hormigas
    • Life on Six Legs
    • Macromite
    • microecos
    • mirmekolozi
    • myrmecoid
    • Myrmician
    • Natural Imagery
    • Nature in the Ozarks
    • NCSU Insect Blog
    • No Cropping Zone
    • omit needless words
    • Photo Synthesis
    • Princess Peppercloud
    • Science Blogs
    • Snail’s Tales
    • Stu Jenks
    • The Ant Hunter
    • The Ant Room
    • The Bug Whisperer
    • The Loom
    • This Week in Evolution
    • What's Bugging You?
    • Wild about Ants
    • Xenogere
  • Insect Links

    • Ant Farm Forum
    • Ant Insights
    • Antweb
    • Bug Squad
    • bugguide.net
    • Xerces Society
  • Photography Links

    • Canon Photography Forums
    • Digital Photography Review
    • DIY Photography
    • Igor Siwanowicz
    • Mark Plonsky
    • photo.net
    • Piotr Naskrecki
    • The Strobist
  • Popular Posts

    • Friday Beetle Blogging: The Eyed Elater
    • North America's charming citronella ants
    • Friday Beetle Blogging: Palo Verde Beetle
    • Friday Beetle Blogging: Pelidnota Grapevine Beetle
    • Rover Ants (Brachymyrmex patagonicus), an emerging pest species
    • What does it mean to be an eyeless ant?
    • Sunday Night Movie: My Directorial Debut
    • My, what big eyes you have...
    • Reader question: who discovered the sex of ant workers?
    • The Odorous House Ant, Tapinoma sessile
  • Recent Posts

    • This blog has moved.
    • Friday Beetle Blogging: The Hollyhock Weevil
    • The Friday Beetle will be late…
    • Bed bugs reach an all-time high
    • Answer to the Monday Night Mystery
  • Recent Comments

    • Donald Byron Johnson on Reader question: who discovered the sex of ant workers?
    • Anonymous on Update on the Rogue Taxonomist
    • Ant on Arizona Daily Star covers “Planet of the Ants”
    • Ga. Girl on Beware the Cow-Killer
    • Anonymous on Beware the Cow-Killer
  • Categories

  • Archives

  • animation Ants aphids arachnids Argentina arizona army ants art Bees beetles behavior biodiversity biology Biology Links bugs Canon carabidae coleoptera copyright Darwin desert diptera E. O. Wilson ecology entomology Evolution fail fire ants Flies formicidae genetics google haiku Harpegnathos imaging Insect Links Insects invasive species lighting Linepithema macro macrophotography macro photography Martialis media miniscule muppets music myrmecology mystery natural history Nature new species odontomachus Parasites Paratrechina pests pheidole Photography Photography business photoshop phylogenetics phylogeny Pogonomyrmex politics predation Scarabaeidae Science SEM social insects spiders Taxonomy termites travel wasps
  • Nature Blog Network
    Add to Technorati Favorites

    Follow this blog

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

WPThemes.


  • Follow Following
    • Myrmecos Blog
    • Join 90 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Myrmecos Blog
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Copy shortlink
    • Report this content
    • View post in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: