Introduction
Dear top millipede identifiers (@szucsich, @derhennen, @doppelhans) and gonopod observers (@cedric_lee, @cynthia_c, @rowan_clarke, @handycoordination, @ldvn, @rafael_carbonell),
This is a new project called 'Millipede gonopods'. To introduce you, the About section states:
"Citizen science observations of millipedes rarely include high-quality images of gonopods; the reproductively-modified legs of adult males, upon which millipede identification heavily relies. This project collects manually-added, verifiable observations identified to subclass Chilognatha, or a child taxon therein, that feature high-quality gonopod images. "High-quality" means that the gonopod's perspective, resolution, focus, and lighting can reasonably be expected to form the basis of a narrow identification, and "gonopod" is used in the broad sense to include all reproductively-modified legs, regardless of segment. The aim of this project is to expose such observations for expert review, to emphasise that even diplopodology can benefit from citizen science data, and to encourage more naturalists to feature gonopods in their millipede observations."
If this is something that interests you, please consider joining the project and adding suitable observations to it.
Best regards,
James
Comments
Sounds great, trying to get more into Millipedes myself. I'll be adding mine whenever I can.
Thanks for creating this project ! :)
Is a good idea to have a gonopod reference collection, in cases can be useful to compare with. Is it allowed all kind of genital structures of Myriapod identification? I have detailed pictures of Lithobius and Himantariella.
@rafael_carbonell The project is currently set so that only millipedes are allowed. Of course, I could change this setting and I'm not opposed to doing so, but I'd like to avoid scope-creep unless there's a good reason. In my understanding there's less of a need for it because: (1) Centipede gonopods are large and visible from a dorsal perspective, so most observations show them. (2) Other centipede reproductive structures play an important but less central role in centipede ID than gonopods do in millipede ID. (3) Centipedes are far less speciose than millipedes, so their ID is inherently easier. I welcome being corrected, though.
@romerorjuanc, you may be interested to see this project.
@douch, understood, better to keep the project as it is. Somebody else can create a specific project for Centipedes.
Nice idea. But I don't know how it will work. Shall we post pictures of gonopods or how?
Yeah – for example, have a look at this observation or any of the other observations within this project.
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