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Semionellus placidus
ft. Derek Hennen / @entoderek
Only a few of us get to see alien life at the bottom of the deepest trench or walk a path that leads to nowhere. Sometimes, the sweetest discoveries are the ones hidden under your nose.
For Virginia Tech’s Derek Hennen, they tend to hide under leaf litter.
“I’d find species that smelled like cherries and had vibrant colors, and that really got me hooked,” said Derek, when asked about his obsession with millipedes.
Four million years of evolution have spawned countless numbers of these many-legged animals, at least 12,000 of which still exist today. For Derek, there’s an appeal in finding strange, unknown creatures in your own backyard.
“What really solidified millipedes for me was when I went on a night hike with some friends and brought a UV light with me. I turned it on and saw a bunch of UV fluorescent millipedes crawling through the leaves, and it was absolutely astounding. It was so cool to suddenly know these things had been around all my life and I was just now seeing them!”
“It was essentially like being handed a Pokédex and told I could fill it up if I wanted.”
We have a complicated relationship with millipedes. Some keep them as pets, while others treat them as pests or use them in traditional medicines. But in Derek’s eyes, people’s fascination is clearly there when he’s out in the fields.
“Every so often I get weird looks, but refreshingly most of the time people are interested and want to know more. Digging through the leaves is a great way to make friends.”
It doesn’t take a face-to-face encounter with Derek to see how smitten he is with millipedes. On the internet, he’s more than happy to deliver the weirdest and the prettiest millipede photos to your screen.
After admitting it’s hard for him to pick a favorite, he sent me some photos of the millipede Semionellus placidus glowing under a blacklight.
“See, it’s a cutie patootie.”
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Derek Hennen is a PhD student at Virginia Tech.
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