East African Giant Green Millipede (Analocostreptus gregorius)

If you bought this animal before 2023 it came with a different genus on the label. Enghoff moved thirty-two nominal species out of Spirostreptus that year and this was one of them, so the name that sat on shop listings for decades is now out of date. It is Analocostreptus gregorius, Attems described it in 1914, and the genus itself is Silvestri's, from 1910.

Not the same animal as the Ghana Olive

We keep two millipedes with olive in the name and they are confused constantly, so here is the separation. Both sit in the family Spirostreptidae but in different tribes, this one in Perustreptini and the Ghana Olive in Spirostreptini. In the tub the tell is the legs. This species has reddish-brown to orange legs against an olive, faintly striped body with a greenish head shield. The Ghana Olive's legs are banded white and brown, and it is a considerably longer animal.

Where they come from differs too. This one is Central-southern African, recorded from Angola, which is the type locality, and from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Older trade listings sold it under the placeholder Spirostreptidae sp. 2, which has since been retired.

Size and pace

Around 120mm as an adult, with males slightly narrower than females. It is slim for its length instead of bulky, which is much of the appeal, and it spends more time visible on the surface and in the top of the substrate than the burrowing giants do. We would stop short of calling it day-active; that reading traces to one UK listing which a second shop then reproduced word for word.

We have no maturity figure we can stand behind. The one to two years quoted around the hobby looks very much like a lifespan figure that has ended up in the wrong row, and the care sheets that put a number on longevity disagree with each other and cite nothing.

Keeping them

This is the more forgiving of the pair, and unusually for a big African millipede it is bred in captivity as a matter of routine across Europe instead of arriving only as imports.

Depth first. At least 10cm of decayed oak and beech with leaf mould worked through it and a little soil beneath, deeper if the enclosure allows, because that bed is simultaneously the food and the place it moults. Hardwood only, never pine or cedar. Limestone or cuttlebone permanently available. Warmth from the side of the enclosure or simply from the room, never from a mat sitting underneath it. Our millipede substrate guide covers how to build the mix.

22 to 26°C suits it, with humidity around 70 to 80 per cent, damp all the way through the substrate without the surface sitting wet. It climbs well, so rotten wood and cork bark are worth adding, and the lid has to seal. Fruit and vegetables are a supplement, never the diet.

Alarmed, it curls down flat like a watch spring instead of balling up, and it may let go of a benzoquinone secretion. That stains fingers brown, irritates skin if it is left on, and in an eye it is a chemical burn rather than a sting, so wash with soap before you touch your face. If you want something bigger in the same family, the African Giant Chocolate is the obvious step up, and everything else lives in millipedes for sale.

Shipping runs Monday to Thursday, never into a weekend. Animals go out on damp moss in a pot drilled for air, wrapped in a twin-walled carton, and Royal Mail have it with you the next morning ahead of one o'clock. You get a few more than you paid for, and the live arrival guarantee applies.