Eumillipes persephone The first true millipede 1306 legs long

Scientific abstract: The name millipede translates to a thousand feet (from mille thousand and pes foot). However, no millipede has ever been described with more than 750 legs. We discovered a new recordsetting species of millipede with 1, 306 legs, Eumillipes persephone, from Western Australia. This diminutive animal mm wide, 95. 7 mm long) has 330 segments, a coneshaped head with enormous antennae, and a beak for feeding. A distant relative of the previous record holder, Illacme plenipes from California, it belongs to a different order, the Polyzoniida. Discovered 60 m below ground in a drill hole created for mineral exploration, E. persephone possesses troglomorphic features; it lacks eyes and pigmentation, and it has a greatly elongated bodyfeatures that stand in stark contrast to its closest surfacedwelling relatives in Australia and all other members of its order. Using phylogenomics, we found that superelongation ( more than 180 segments) evolved repeatedly in the millipede class Diplop