‘Dragon’ creature with many strange legs is a ‘striking’ new species in Thailand
Hidden in southwestern Thailand’s limestone caves, researchers encountered a “very strange” and “striking” insect with an unusual trait — some of its many legs were long, and others were short.
The odd creature turned out to be a new species of dragon millipede, according to a study published June 25 in the journal Invertebrate Systematics.
Alternaxytes bipectinata has a distinctive trait called heteropody, meaning its “extremely long and slender” legs alternate between being long and short, according to the study.
Millipedes belonging to the Polydesmida order typically have between 58 and 62 legs, according to experts.
Researchers said this feature of “having unequally long and short legs on each ring has never been reported before in any member of the family Paradoxosomatidae,” to which the new species belongs.
This trait is so rare, it has only been observed in one other millipede family from South America not closely related to the new Thailand species, the study said.
“The function of heteropody in these species may be related to lateral or sideways motion,” researchers said. Further investigation in the field is needed “to fully understand the ecological and evolutionary significance of this unusual trait.”
The new species measures just under an inches long. It is described as being brown or dark brown and having “very long and slender” antennae, according to the study.
A single female specimen found at a survey site “quite distant” from the others had a distinctly reddish color, indicating this, too, may be a new species, researchers said.
Researchers created a new genus, Alternaxytes, to accommodate the new species as its characteristics do not match any others.
Alternaxytes bipectinata is found primarily in limestone habitats in tropical rainforests with high rates of rain, according to the study. The specimens were found in moist dead leaf litter, while others were found crawling on tree branches and rock walls, researchers said.
Since 2018, several new groups of millipedes have been discovered on the Malay Peninsula, according to the study. The region, carved up by changing sea levels, likely “contributed to the remarkable species diversity in the region,” researches said.
The research team included Ruttapon Srisonchai, Henrik Enghoff, Natdanai Likhitrakarn, Somsak Panha and Chirasak Sutcharit.