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Sticker of Pill millipede
Bug card No. 1054 of 1,500

Pill millipede

Glomeris marginata
Eats: Leftovers and dead thingsCentipedes and millipedesGardens and meadowsLots of legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin

The pill millipede is a short, shiny, black millipede with pale edges on its back plates. When it is scared, it rolls into a little ball, like a pill. People often mix it up with a woodlouse, but it has many more legs.

Fun fact: this one is not an insect. Insects have six legs, and this cousin has many, many more.
Lives in
Western Europe, from the Pyrenees to Britain, Ireland and southern Scandinavia
Length
0.7 to 2 cm (0.28 to 0.79 in)
Top speed
about 0.14 km/h (0.09 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless to people. If it is attacked, it oozes a sticky drop that tastes bad to enemies, so wash your hands after touching it.
What does it eat?
It eats old, rotting leaves on the ground. That helps turn dead leaves back into good soil.
For real!Photo of Pill millipede
Picture by Stemonitis. CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Pill millipede about 2 cm long (0.79 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)
as long as 3 grains of rice in a rowit has about 34 legscould run across a dinner table in 26 seconds

How big is Pill millipede compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Grown-up girls have 34 legs and grown-up boys have 38.

2

A baby starts with only 6 legs and gets more every time it sheds its skin.

3

Its sticky defence drops can even glue an ant's legs together.

4

After using up all its defence drops, it can take up to four months to make new ones.

5

You can tell it from a woodlouse ball: the woodlouse rolls into a rounder ball, and the pill millipede is darker and shinier.

you asked

Most asked questions about Pill millipede

?What is the difference between a pill millipede and a pill bug?

The pill millipede has many more legs, a darker, shinier back and one big plate at the tail end. A pill bug is a woodlouse with 14 legs.

?What does a pill millipede eat?

Old, rotting leaves lying on the ground.

?How big is a pill millipede?

It is about 7 to 20 millimetres long. The girls are usually a bit bigger.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Glomeris marginata
Group
Centipedes and millipedes
Family
Glomeridae
Classification
Diplopoda > Glomerida > Glomeridae
Lives on
Europe

Where the facts come from

  1. Glomeris marginata (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Stemonitis. CC BY 2.5, 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 hello@bugwiki.app and we will fix it.

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