Ghana Chocolate Millipede

Millipedes are often confused with Centipedes as both are typically long, thin and with many legs - like a train. Both of them belong to the same class, Myriapoda (many legs), Millipedes then split off in to heir own class called Diplopoda. This generally references to the fact that the segments are actually two segments that are fused together Diplopoda. If you look closely at each of the body segments you will see that there are actually two pairs of legs per segment i.e. 4 legs. A common myth is that Millipedes have a thousand legs, this is because of their name (milli derived from Latin for 1000). Typically the actual number of legs is between 100 and 400 depending on the insects age and type, each time the insect moults it adds further segments and therefore legs.