the john muir exhibit - science - muir's miliped
Amplaria muiri
A cave species of Milliped named for John Muir
Several unusual new cave species have been discovered in recent
years. Among them is Muir's Milliped,
Amplaria muiri
, a herbivorous nonpoisonous arthropod having a cylindrical body
of 80 to 100 or more segments, each with two pairs of legs. The species
type was disovered in Crystal Cave, Sequoia National Park in 2003.
It was subsequently validated as a new species in a scientific
paper published in in Zootaxa in 2007 by William
A. Shear and Jean K. Krejca.
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| Amplaria
muiri -
Photo Copyright © by Dr. Jean K. Krejca, Zara Environmental LLC.
Used by permission. This specimen was photographed in Crystal Cave,
Sequoia National Park. |
The new species was described by Dr. Shear and Dr. Krejca, who noted that it
was named:
"After John Muir, famous naturalist of the late nineteenth and early twentieth
century, whose name is forever connected with the Sierra Nevada, which he called
the 'Range of Light'."
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Scientific Name:
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Amplaria muiri
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Common Name:
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Muir's Milliped
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Family:
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Striariiadae
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Order:
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Chordeumatida |
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Class:
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Diplopoda |
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Habitat:
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Caves |
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Types:
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Crystal Cave, Sequoia National Park, Tulare County, California.
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Taxonomic Comments:
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Length 16.5 mm, width 1.2 mm. Three, four, or five small, irregularly
shaped black ocelli in one or two rows. Color of most specimens is
yellowish white (see photo). |
Source:
Revalidation of the milliped genus Amplaria Chamberlin 1941 (Diplopoda, Chordematida,
Striariiadea) , and description of two new species from caves in Sequoia
and Kings Canyon National Parks California
by William A. Shear and Jean K.Krejca Zootaxa 1532: 23-39 (2007).
See also: Discoveries
in the Dark, National Geographc (September,
2007).
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