A Jumping Millipede

MOST zoologists would consider a jumping Diplopod to be a highly unlikely animal. Whilst one of us (J. G. B.) was in Sierra Leone recently, however, he collected some millipedes which can perform a succession of four or five short hops. The millipedes belong to the sub-order Stemmiuloidea. The genus represented in Sierra Leone is Diopsiulus Silvestri, of which there are several species, all superficially similar, which all have this characteristic jumping behaviour. Cook 1 , writing on neotropical species belonging to the sub-order, reported that the animals “frequently throw themselves several inches when disturbed”, and wrote that the collector of a species in Ceylon ( D. ceylonicus ) reported to Pocock that the animals were saltatory. Cook wrote that the “apparent jumping motion is caused by vigorous wriggling of the body”.