Bumblebee Millipede (Anadenobolus monilicornis)

Captive monkeys have been recorded rubbing these millipedes through their fur, and in Puerto Rico a wild grackle was watched working one over its wings, back and belly. Not many pet invertebrates come with a natural history like that.

The animal

Anadenobolus monilicornis, described by Porat in 1876, family Rhinocricidae, order Spirobolida. The epithet comes from monile, a necklace, for the beaded look of the antennae.

Black to dark brown, ringed with bands running from yellow through to lime green, and finished with red to maroon legs and antennae. The legs are the part photographs undersell. Figures run from 25 to 30mm in the general references up to about 45mm long and a shade over 4mm wide in the most detailed published account, across roughly 45 body rings. You will also see 5 to 7cm quoted, which one specialist breeder's own maximum supports at the bottom end, and occasionally 10cm, which has nothing behind it beyond repetition between shop pages.

The natural range is probably Caribbean: Hispaniola and Puerto Rico through the Lesser Antilles to Trinidad, eastern coastal Venezuela and Suriname. Jamaica, Barbados, Bermuda, the Caymans and Florida are all introductions, moved around by people. Florida usually gets described as a 2001 arrival and an agricultural pest. Its first record there is actually from 1959, two females, though that find did not establish; 2001 is when it turned up in huge numbers in the Keys. The documented problem is houses, not crops, with thousands turning up on walls and ceilings in bad years.

Why it suits a first millipede

Small, hardy, prolific, and active enough to be worth watching. It eats the usual detritivore range and a good deal besides: leaf litter, dead wood, fallen fruit, seeds, fungi, and dead invertebrates when it finds them.

Breeding is where it earns its place. Care sheets say females nest and guard the eggs, though the only source we could trace is a general textbook line about millipedes, and a UK zoo describes eggs laid singly through the litter. The young are described as close to colourless for up to six months, though one keeper says light brown, so a tub that looks like it holds nothing but adults may be full of young you have not noticed. The young develop down in the substrate, where digging breaks open nests and moulting chambers, and the droppings around them are rich in microbes that millipedes are known to eat, so do not strip a breeding enclosure out. Keep the generations together and leave the mess alone.

Keeping them

5 to 8cm of crumbled hardwood and leaf litter over a soil base, damp through the depth without the top sitting wet. Hardwood only, no pine or cedar. Cuttlebone in permanently. Room temperature to gently warm, around 20 to 26°C, humidity in the seventies, and any heat coming from the side or from the room and never from a mat underneath the tub. There is more on building the bed in our millipede substrate guide, and rotten wood is the component people usually skip. Our Bumblebee millipede care guide covers the set-up, feeding and breeding in full.

Alarmed, it curls down into a tight disc. It does not roll into a ball, which is a different group of millipedes altogether. Handled roughly it can release its defensive fluid, benzoquinone-based in its close relatives, which stains fingers brown and irritates skin if left on, and in an eye causes a chemical burn that needs treating. Wash your hands with soap after handling, keep them away from your eyes, rinse any splash out of an eye and get it looked at promptly, and supervise children.

Both captive-bred and wild-collected animals circulate in the UK trade under this name, so we make no blanket captive-bred claim here. If you want to move up in size afterwards, the African Giant is the standard next animal, and the rest are in millipedes for sale.

We post early in the week, Monday through Thursday, so nothing sits over a weekend. Each order rides on wet moss in a perforated pot inside a doubled carton and goes by Royal Mail Tracked 24, or Special Delivery Guaranteed by 1pm if you choose Next Day at checkout. The tub holds more than the listing says. Live arrival is guaranteed.