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Motyxia is a genus of cyanide-producing millipedes (collectively known as Sierra luminous millipedes or motyxias [1]) that are endemic to the southern Sierra Nevada, Tehachapi, and Santa Monica mountain ranges of California. Motyxias are blind and produce the poison cyanide, like all members of the Polydesmida.
The millipede has glands that produce hydrogen cyanide to protect it from predators, which causes it to smell like almonds. Its toxicity is advertised by its aposematic color. [2] The shocking pink dragon millipede was named third in the top ten new species list of 2008 by the International Institute for Species Exploration. [3]
Immature millipedes feed on humus. Harpaphe haydeniana has few predators , due to its aposematic coloration and its ability to secrete hydrogen cyanide when threatened. This behaviour gives rise to the common names "cyanide millipede" and "almond-scented millipede" (since cyanide smells of almonds ), although cyanide secretion is not unique to ...
Polydesmida (from the Greek poly "many" and desmos "bond") is the largest order of millipedes, with more than 5,000 species, [2] [3] including all the millipedes reported to produce hydrogen cyanide (HCN). [4] This order is also the most diverse of the millipede orders in terms of morphology. [5]
Millipedes can be an unwanted nuisance particularly in greenhouses where they can potentially cause severe damage to emergent seedlings. Most millipedes defend themselves with a variety of chemicals secreted from pores along the body, although the tiny bristle millipedes are covered with tufts of detachable bristles. Its primary defence ...
The millipede, Nearctodesmus salix defensive secretion consist of hydrogen cyanide, benzaldehyde, 3-methylbutanoic acid, and 2-methylbutanoic. This shows cyanogenesis extends to the family Nearctodesmidae.
Xystodesmidae is a family of millipedes in the suborder Leptodesmidea within the order Polydesmida (the "flat-backed" or "keeled" millipedes). [1] The family Xystodesmidae was created by the American biologist Orator F. Cook in 1895 and named after the genus Xystodesmus. [2] [3] This family includes more than 390 known species distributed among ...
Apheloria virginiensis, the Kentucky flat millipede, [1] is a large North American millipede. It gets its name from the yellow and orange markings on its back that give it a flattened appearance. [2] It is reported to secrete cyanide compounds as a defense mechanism.