Portuguese millipede
The Portuguese millipede is a smooth, shiny grey to black millipede with lots and lots of little legs. It comes from Portugal and Spain, but hitched rides on ships to faraway places. In Australia it now crawls around in huge numbers.
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Fun facts
It probably travelled to Australia around 1953, maybe in a ship's ballast.
Young ones are light brown with a dark stripe, and turn black after about two years.
It takes about 3 years and up to 16 moults to grow up.
It is most busy at night after autumn rains.
In hot dry weather it goes quiet and rests, which also helped it survive long sea trips.
Most asked questions about Portuguese millipede
?Is the Portuguese millipede dangerous?
No. It is harmless to people, though it can be a pest when there are very many.
?What does the Portuguese millipede eat?
Fallen leaves and fresh mosses.
?How did the Portuguese millipede get to Australia?
It travelled by accident on ships, probably around 1953.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Ommatoiulus moreleti
- Group
- Centipedes and millipedes
- Family
- Julidae
- Classification
- Diplopoda > Julida > Julidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Africa, Australia and Oceania, North America
Where the facts come from
- Ommatoiulus moreleti (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by J. Coelho. CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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