Entry-level “enjoyable reality” commenters like to say that tomatoes are technically a fruit. Intermediate obscure data lovers, in the meantime, will know bananas are technically berries.
True trivia followers, then again, will know that strawberries are neither a berry nor even a fruit and that the “seeds” on the skin are literally the fruit, every of which accommodates the precise seeds.
However not even probably the most profitable pub quiz individuals I do know have been conscious that technically, millipedes (and centipedes) aren’t bugs.
As an alternative, the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) says they belong to a bunch known as myriapods, a kind of arthropod.
What’s the distinction?
Arthropods account for 84% of animal life on Earth, the net encyclopedia Brittanica says.
They’re distinguished by their jointed skeletal masking made out of chitin, which is bonded to a protein.
“The physique is often segmented, and the segments bear paired jointed appendages, from which the identify arthropod (jointed toes) is derived,” Britannica provides.
Arthropods will be bugs, however the pure history-based Australian Museum in Sydney says: “Centipedes and millipedes are usually not bugs as they’ve greater than six legs.”
The nonprofit conservation, training, and advocacy organisation Nationwide Wildlife Federation (NWF) agrees that millipedes “are usually not bugs — they’re really extra intently associated to lobsters, shrimp, and crayfish”.
What?
Likening a millipede to the type of sea creatures I prefer to see on my plate is fairly stomach-churning, however the onslaught of recent data doesn’t finish there.
The NWF says that some millipedes within the genus Motyxia are bioluminescent, that means they develop at the hours of darkness.
Large African millipedes can develop to 30cm lengthy (oh, good), and although their identify (“milli” that means “thousand”, and “pede” that means “toes”) may recommend in any other case, they usually solely have between 40 and 400 legs.
Nonetheless, the RHS factors out that “millipedes feed on decaying natural matter and are a part of a wholesome backyard ecosystem”, including they “shouldn’t be managed.”
Seems like I’ll simply should dwell with these odd little prawn bugs for the sake of my soil…