Here Nannaria swiftae crawls across the forest floor of the Appalachian Mountains: Scientists named this species of millipede, newly discovered in the USA, after the US singer Taylor Swift.
The millipedes, which belong to the invertebrates, often look small and inconspicuous, but they play an important role in the forest ecosystem. As decomposers, they break down dead organic material such as leaves and thus return important substances such as carbon dioxide, water and minerals to the forest. The myriapods find the dead plant material on the forest floor, where they often dig themselves into the ground. This makes it difficult to find the animals.
It is all the more astonishing that Derek Hennen from Virginia Tech in Blacksburg in the USA and his colleagues have now been able to describe 17 new species of millipedes. The existing number of fossils in museums led the researchers to suspect that the species diversity of the myriapods could be greater than previously described. The biologists therefore set out on a targeted journey through the forests of 17 states in the USA in order to look for other millipede species that were still undiscovered.
Using the finds they found, additional museum specimens and comparative DNA analyzes of the more than 1800 specimens, they were able to identify and describe 17 new species of myriapods. What these species have in common is that the males have twisted claws on their front legs and that the animals are mainly found near forest streams. The newly discovered millipedes range in length from 18 to 39 millimeters and display a wide variety of colors, ranging from shiny caramel brown to black with white, red or orange dots.
The centipede Nannaria swiftae pictured here is from the Appalachian Mountains and is named after the US singer and songwriter Taylor Swift. “Her music helped me through the ups and downs of my PhD years, so naming a new millipede species after her is my way of saying thank you,” says Derek Hennen.