Amber Millipede (Pelmatojulus ligulatus)

The first thing anyone notices about Pelmatojulus ligulatus is the banding. Bold amber-orange rings alternate with deep dark-brown along the whole length of the body, and the finish is glossy rather than matt, so the colour catches the light and gives the animal a warm, polished shine. That amber glow is where the common name comes from: this is the Amber Millipede, a chunky, glossy millipede from West Africa, and to my eye one of the best-looking banded species we stock. Photographs flatter plenty of invertebrates, but this one looks even better in person.

Adults reach around 14cm, but the length only tells half the story. These are thickset, heavy-bodied animals with real girth, so they feel far more substantial in the hand than their measurements suggest. That weight, combined with the glossy shell, gives them a presence that thinner species lack. They sit comfortably between the slimmer Red Ring Millipede and the much larger African Giant Black Millipede in size and bulk, a solid medium-to-large millipede that holds its own in any display.

I bring these in as wild imports from the secondary rainforests of West Africa, so each one arrives as a fully grown, characterful adult rather than a captive-bred juvenile. They are calm, unhurried detritivores that spend their days working quietly through the substrate, surfacing to feed and explore before disappearing back under. Nothing about them is nervous or fast, and that steady, gentle temperament is a large part of why I keep coming back to the species.

Their care starts and ends with the substrate, because for this species the substrate is the food. In the wild they eat rotting hardwood and decaying leaf litter, and they need the same at home: a deep, nutrient-rich base of rotten hardwood mixed through something like our flake soil, topped with a generous layer of leaf litter such as our magnolia leaf litter. Add calcium and keep it available at all times, since a cuttlebone or a few pieces of limestone are essential for healthy moulting. One firm rule: never use softwood or pine, which is toxic to millipedes; hardwood only.

Keep them warm and humid, at around 24 to 28°C with high humidity, and give them real depth to burrow into, at least 10cm and more if you can manage it. They spend much of their life below the surface, so the depth matters. The one thing I cannot stress enough is heating: never heat a burrowing millipede from underneath. Bottom heat is fatal to a species that digs down to escape the warmth, so any supplementary heat should come from the side of the enclosure, never below it.

For all their size, Amber Millipedes are gentle and easy to handle. They plod slowly across your hands and, when startled, they coil into a tight spiral rather than rolling into a ball. Like all millipedes they can weep a little defensive fluid if they feel threatened, which is harmless but can stain, so wash your hands after handling and keep sessions short and low to the ground, since a fall can damage that long body. If you enjoy a calm, handleable millipede, they sit nicely alongside the Burmese Beauty Millipede and the Ivory Millipede.

Every Amber Millipede leaves me packed with care, nestled in damp sphagnum inside a double-walled box to keep it cushioned and humid in transit. I post Monday to Thursday by tracked next-day Royal Mail, and every order is covered by my live-arrival guarantee, so your millipede reaches you safe, settled and ready for its new home.