Millipedes - Mating & Courtship
Our attention was brought to the side of the road where the two biggest millipedes (Diplopoda) I have ever seen was mating. We were all amused by the sighting as you don't get to see millipedes that size everyday. We went to find out exactly how the courtship and mating happens.
Eggs and sperm are produced in organs called "Gonopores". Males have to change their secondary sexual organs from their primary ones, by curling their bodies forwards so the spermatophore can be transferred from the 3rd segment to the 7th.
Courtship involves the males walking alongside females stimulating her with rhythmic pulses with his legs. The female raises her front segment and the male entwines his body around her and when their genitalia are opposed sperm transfer occurs. The sperm is transferred to the female in a package called spermatophore.
The females then make underground nests in which the lay their eggs, the nest is made by excreting soil they have eaten and using their anal folds to shape it as required. The females lay as much as 2000 eggs but a few hundred is more likely. This all varies between different species.
Ester van der Merwe
Base Manager
Venetia Limpopo Nature Reserve
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