Creatures with dozens of ‘slender’ legs — some ‘leaf-like’ — are new species in Japan
Scattered across a chain of subtropical islands in southwestern Japan, buried under rocks, or deep within the region’s humid soil, researchers discovered seven new species with segmented bodies and dozens of slender legs.
The newly identified millipedes were found in highly localized regions of the Ryukyu Archipelago, such as a limestone hill or a small patch of forest, according to a peer-reviewed study published March 12 in the journal ZooKeys.
All seven millipedes belong to the Xystodesmus genus, and the discovery of these new species extends its known range “considerably” far south, according to the the study.
The millipedes are “strongly fluorescent” under ultraviolet light, researchers said. They are part of the Polydesmid order and millipedes in this order can have up to 21 body segments each with two pairs of legs.
Xystodesmus fasciatus, with up to 19 segments, was discovered in a Japanese cedar forest on the Satsuma peninsula and is named for its “vividly banded” body made up of alternating “pale-greyish” and “dark chocolate-brown” colors, researchers said.
The outer edges of the millipede’s body segments are “bright reddish orange,” according to the study.
The fasciatus millipede is also described as having a set of “flattened and curved leaf-like” legs positioned in front of its reproductive appendages, according to the study.
The study describes other “surprising” findings among these new species, including that one, Xystodesmus sesokoensis, was found only in “a small forest” on an island less than 2 square miles big.
A third newly discovered millipede, Xystodesmus rebekae, could only be located on a single limestone hill on Okinawa-jima Island, according to researchers.
The discovery of these millipedes brings the known number of species in the Xystodesmus genus to 18, according to the study.
The research team included Zoltán Korsós and Yasuyuki Nakamura.
This story was originally published March 19, 2025 at 1:16 PM with the headline "Creatures with dozens of ‘slender’ legs — some ‘leaf-like’ — are new species in Japan."
