There is something hypnotic about the movement of this tony elongated creatures.
In South Africa we call them a “shongololo”, to the rest of the World they are known as a millipede. Their name derives from the Xhosa & Zulu word “ukushonga”, which means to roll up. Whereas the word “millipede” is derived from Latin - meaning “thousand feet”.
If you haven’t seen them before they are small black bugs, resembling a thousand-legged worm. Its entire body is segmented and they have what seems like a million tiny legs, but can only grow up to 200 as an adult. Each segment is characterised by having two pairs of legs on most of the segments.
Shongololo’s will curl up in a tight coil when threatened, this protects their soft underparts. If you pick them up, they won’t bite you, but will excrete a smelly substance, this is to keep predators at bay, though they are not harmful.
They are natures little recyclers, and feed on dead plant and animals returning the nutrients back into the soil.
Did you know? That they are one of the oldest animals on Earth…
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