A Naturalist in France Posts iNat's First Protoglomeris vasconia Pill Millipede! - Observation of the Week, 8/10/22

Our Observation of the Week is the first Protoglomeris vasconia pill millipede posted to iNat! Seen in France by @ldvn.

Ludivine Lamare, a twenty-one year-old French biology student who identifies as a transgender woman, grew up tidepooling and insect hunting and has always had an interest in nature. First marine life, and now terrestrial arthropods.

I've only started photographing the world around me in the middle of the Covid lockdown in summer 2020. Back then, I wouldn't even think about picking up photography as a hobby and yet... I started using iNaturalist pretty much at the same time, focusing on “easier” targets such as odonates. Today, my two biggest interests are harvestmen (Opiliones) and spiders.

Last month, Ludivine journeyed from her current base in Limoges, France, to the French Pyrenees mountains and went looking for harvestmen. After scouting a tunnel when she arrived, she returned to it at night, looking for Ischyropsalis luteipes and Sabacon.

Unfortunately I didn't find any, but while prospecting, amidst the countless Meta menardi and Nesticus cellulanus watching me from every angle, I saw an unusual pill millipede which first struck me by how big it was (by European pill millipedes standards I must add).

But no matter how strong my arachnid fever may be, I never turn down a nice millipede. I was frankly quite surprised later on when I found that it was the first observation of this (rather conspicuous) species on the site, though some others already existed elsewhere on forums and databases. Especially as it wasn't very hard to ID.

As you might suspect from their common name, pill millipedes are millipedes that can roll up into a defensive ball shape, much like pill woodlice (which are isopods). “It feels like pill millipedes and Myriapoda as a whole suffer from a lack of representation. Because even though Protoglomeris vasconica may have a relatively narrow distribution, it doesn't seem to be particularly rare nor well hidden when it is present.” Like many other millipedes, they’re detritivores and can exude a gnarly fluid when threatened.

“When I started using iNaturalist two years ago, it was merely a way for me to have my personal gallery of ‘things I observed,’” says Ludivine, “but now I find it a very engaging way to generate data.”

I like how I am able to share valuable illustration photos of overlooked species, and how accessible those documents can be to any other naturalist worldwide, experts and hobbyists alike. Going forward, I'd love to continue documenting “the forgotten ones” now that I'll soon have access to my own stereomicroscope. And I plan on starting speleology at some point. Some very interesting harvestmen are entirely troglobitic and I'd love to help shed light on those even a tiny bit. This specimen of Ischyropsalis pyrenaea, for example, was the culminating point of my vacation, and the first record on iNaturalist as well!

For now I've been talking mostly as someone who posts observations on here but since I also started helping with IDs, I must say conversing with experts and enthusiasts is very convenient on iNaturalist. And while I did most of the learning on other sites and forums, it has been a really good starting point. Encouraging more people to help with IDs and care about the quality of the data is important especially in the context of citizen-science projects like this where ID mistakes are to be expected.

- As Ludivine hinted at, European pill millipedes (as well as others in the northern hemisphere) are relatively small compared to pill millipedes in the southern hemisphere. About four years ago, one of those giant pill millipedes was an Observation of the Week!

- Here’s a short video with some pill millipede facts.

Posted on August 11, 2022 05:13 AM by