LOS ANGELES (AP) — The City of Angels, a bustling metropolis known for its freeways and traffic congestion, has a remarkable new species named after it: the Los Angeles Thread Millipede.
Discovered just beneath the ground by naturalists in a Southern California hiking area, the tiny Los Angeles Thread Millipede shares its habitat near a freeway, a Starbucks, and an Oakley sunglasses store.
About the size of a paperclip but as slim as a pencil lead, this translucent creature has a sinuous body reminiscent of a jellyfish tentacle. It burrows four inches underground, secretes unique chemicals, and is blind, relying on hornlike antennas to navigate.
Under a microscope, the Los Angeles Thread Millipede, with its 486 legs and helmet-like head, resembles a creature straight out of a Hollywood monster film.
“It’s astonishing to think that these millipedes are crawling beneath our feet in the hidden cracks and crevices of Los Angeles,” said entomologist Paul Marek from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute. Marek, along with scientists from West Virginia University and the University of California, Berkeley, was part of the research team that made the discovery.
Their findings on the species, scientifically known as Illacme socal, were recently published in the journal ZooKeys. The vernacular name for this species is the Los Angeles Thread Millipede.
“It goes to show that there is an undiscovered underground world,” Marek added.
The discovery of the Los Angeles Thread Millipede adds to the list of millipedes found in California, including the leggiest creature on record named Illacme plenipes, which has 750 limbs. The Illacme plenipes was discovered in 1926 in a small area of Northern California.
Millipedes play a crucial role in the ecosystem by feeding on dead organic matter. Without them, we would be overwhelmed by decaying material, according to Marek.
The discovery of the Los Angeles Thread Millipede was made possible with the help of iNaturalist, a citizen naturalist app. Naturalists Cedric Lee and James Bailey stumbled upon the creature while collecting slugs at Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park in Orange County four years ago. Through DNA sequencing and analysis, the research team confirmed that it was indeed a new species.
Lee, a doctoral student at UC Berkeley, has discovered and documented thirty species of centipedes in California. He believes that microorganisms have often been overlooked in the search for new species, but modern tools available to citizen scientists can bridge the gap between the natural world and the laboratory.
“We still have so much to learn about the undiscovered species that surround us,” Lee said. “There are countless undescribed species right beneath our feet.”
Although scientists estimate that there are approximately 10 million animal species on Earth, only one million have been identified thus far.
“Our knowledge of insect species and small creatures around the world is far surpassed by what we don’t know,” said Brian Brown, curator of entomology at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.
After leading a four-year research project called BioSCAN, which involved placing insect traps throughout residential backyards in the city, Brown estimates that there are 20,000 species of insects in Los Angeles alone, both discovered and undiscovered.
However, Brown expresses concerns about the threats posed to native species by climate change and invasive species.
“It will require significant effort and work to try and protect and document these species before they become extinct,” he said.
Daniel Gluesenkamp, president of the California Institute for Biodiversity, who was not involved in the research, sees the Los Angeles Thread Millipede as a prime example of an unexplored frontier.
“We must invest in local parks and preserve any small patches of wilderness, even if they are surrounded by urbanization,” Gluesenkamp emphasized. “We need to understand what resides within those spaces so that we can protect them and utilize them as a solution to the challenges that lie ahead.”
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