#pauropod

[every-day-creechur]

Decapauropus spp.

A genus of pauropods found worldwide. Some species have females with ten pairs of legs instead of the nine leg pairs usually found in adult pauropods in the order Tetramerocerata. Their preferred habitat is warm and moist soil.

image by Turner Brockman

[crevicedwelling]

it has been a foul time for this sorry worm, but at least I saw a pauropod the other day.

[cuttledreams-bugs]

InsertAnInvert2024

January Theme - Bugs Among Us: Around Logs

Week 4: Pauropods (Trachypauropus Britannicus)

Pauropods don't have eyes or a heart, instead opting for a really distinctive branching antennae. They're pretty shy though so they stay tucked away in soil and logs when possible.

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Interested in learning more about the invertebrate animals around us? Join into the year-long InsertAnInvert event organized by Franzanth, where every week a new animal is spotlighted following each monthly theme! Draw unique animals, read up on cool facts, or just follow the tag online to see a lot of cool artwork.

Prompt List: https://bsky.app/profile/franzanth.bsky.social/post/3khyob3xn742q

[herpsandbirds]

Pauropod (Eurypauropus sp.), family Eurypauropodidae, San Mateo County, CA, USA

Pauropods are on of 4 different groups of Myriapods, along with Centipedes, Millipedes, and the Symphyla.

photograph by Jeremiah D. Degenhardt

[every-day-creechur]

Trachypauropus spp.

A genus of pauropods found in Europe.

image by quadratmeter

[crevicedwelling]

oh joyous day! I have found more morsels of life new to my eyes!

these little scurrying fellows are pauropods, one of the four classes within the phylum Myriapoda (the others being centipedes, millipedes, and symphylans).

pauropods are the tiniest in size of them all, but scamper gracefully through their gardens of loam with outsized zest for life. look at ‘em go. angels are colorless tubes zipping around through the soil, fueled by detritus, eyeless and loving it.

endearingly, I'm not the first to be enamored with these little beauties:

gonna just ignore what he said about the other myriapods just because I love pauropods so much right now, and he was so right about them.

here is an adorable video (of much higher quality than my own) of one of these guys running around! note the unique branched antennae.

ぺんどら on Twitter

“1mm以下の土壌動物が見れるようになり、自分の中でエダヒゲムシは割りとよく見られるようになってきた。3年前まではどこにおるの？という感じで運で見つけていた。 多足類に分類されるけど、動きはイタチやリス的な要素を含む節足動物という感じ。”

I’ve wanted to find pauropods for a while and finally had the time to look closely at a single piece of mulch from a compost heap, and it was a whole pauropod town!

despite an impressive diversity—830 species isn’t too shabby—and although pauropods are pretty much everywhere, found wherever there is moist soil or leaf litter, I’m guessing most people will never even hear of one… but now you have! think of the cheerful pauropod again sometime, please. they deserve a little love, even if they’re already quite content with their particles and crevices.

[every-day-creechur]

Samarangopus spp.

A genus of pauropods found in Asia. Pauropods are soft, cylindrical millipede-like animals with bodies measuring only 0.3 to 2 mm in length. They have neither eyes nor hearts, although they do have sensory organs which can detect light. They live in soil and leaf mold.

image by Andy Murray