Anoplodesmus saussurii

Latin Name	Observation Date	Location
Anoplodesmus saussurii	July 26, 2026	Natore, Bangladesh

One of my hobbies is to find the diverse creatures scattered all over nature. Being an agronomist by profession, I am always a little interested in the health of the soil and the environment around the crops. Recently, while walking in the field, I noticed a beautiful millipede on the damp soil and immediately captured it on camera. They are usually 21 to 33 millimeters in length. These adult millipedes are shiny dark brown to black in color and the beautiful yellow or orange pattern on both sides of their body is very eye-catching.

​Scientific name:
​This interesting millipede has a specific scientific name. In the scientific world, it is known as Anoplodesmus saussurii. It was first described by scientist Humbert in 1865. It has some other synonyms or synonyms, such as Polydesmus saussurii or Anoplodesmus attemsii.

​Family Genus:
​According to the scientific classification of biology, they belong to the Diplopoda class of the arthropoda phylum. They are mainly members of the Paradoxosomatidae family. In the scientific world, their genus or genus name is Anoplodesmus.

​Habitat and habitat:
​In terms of geographical distribution, it was once thought that they may be limited to our South Asia only. But later their presence has been confirmed in Southeast Asia, Fiji and Mauritius. They mainly like to live in groups or in many groups together. They are more often seen under piles of rotting garbage on moist or damp soil in agricultural lands, gardens and forests.

​Food:
​In terms of food habits, they are mainly herbivorous. They survive by eating rotten leaves, vegetable parts and wood. They also occasionally eat rotten fish and cow dung. These decaying organic materials lying on the ground are their main food.

​Reproduction:
​Their life cycle and reproduction process are quite remarkable. After 20 to 25 days of mating, a female kenno lays 200 to 400 eggs in a mud house. A female kenno can create a pile of eggs like this 2 to 4 times in her lifetime. After hatching from the eggs, they change their shells a total of seven times and emerge from the soil only when the rainy season begins.

​Benefits:
​They play a great role in maintaining the balance of the environment and soil health. They eat the decaying organic materials around us, dead leaves and dung and turn them into natural elements, which helps a lot in increasing soil fertility. In the agricultural ecosystem, they act as a silent cleaner inside the soil.

​Disadvantages:
​They are not directly harmful to humans in any way. They do not bite humans or have poisonous stings. They also do not usually harm any fresh or living parts of crops or plants, so they are completely safe for the environment and nature around us.

I learned about them from various sites including iNaturalist, Wikipedia and Google.

_{​*(All posts are written in Bengali and translated into English using Google Translate.) *}

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Camera Used	Samsung SM-G973F
F-Stop	F2.4
ISO speed	ISO
Focal length	26mm
Flash	No
Editing app	Lightroom
Photography	(Anoplodesmus saussurii)
Photographer	@mshbd
Location	Natore, Bangladesh

Link to original community
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/394837425

Latitude	Longitude	Map Link
24.3341	89.1165	https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=12/24.3341/89.1165