Creature 261: Harphaphe haydeniana - Blogger.
The Cyanide millipede—Harpaphe haydeniana—is the chemist of the arthropod world. This millipede produces hydrogen cyanide (HCN) to hunt prey and to protect itself against any threats. This millipede produces hydrogen cyanide (HCN) to hunt prey and to protect itself against any threats.
The influence of soil fauna on indices of N mineralization and decomposition in soil developed under four tree species (western redcedar, western hemlock, Sitka spruce and Douglas-fir) from the west coast of Vancouver island, B. C. was evaluated over a 5- month period. The soil was either defaunated, or given an assemblage of mites, collembola, nematodes and enchytraeids extracted from soil.
Harpaphe haydeniana (Wood, 1964) belongs to order Polydesmida and family Xystodesmidae. Harpaphe haydeniana (Wood) was a black colour body and both sides with patches of yellow spots. It was 4 to 5cm length and 0.1 to 0.3cm width consist of 15- 20 body segments, bearing a total 30 (male) or 31 (female) pairs of legs (Fig. 1). 2.
Harpaphe haydeniana was able to detoxify both benzaldehyde (to p-hydroxybenzoic acid) and HCN (to beta-cycloalanine and asparagine), a process also used in plants (Duffey and Towers, 1978). Download: Download full-size image; Fig. 7. Synthesis of some millipede defensive compounds.
A 2003 classification by American myriapodologist Rowland Shelley is similar to classification originally proposed by Verhoeff, and remains the currently accepted classification scheme (shown below), despite more recent molecular studies which propose a number of conflicting relationships.(5)(14) A 2011 summary of millipede family diversity by William A. Shear placed the order Siphoniulida.
Defensive secretions Edit. They defend themselves with noxious secretions. This is typical for the ancient beetle suborder Adephaga to which they belong. They have paired glands in the lower back of the abdomen.These are well developed, and produce noxious or even caustic secretions used to deter would-be predators. In bombardier beetles these secretions are mixed with volatile compounds and.
The following new synonymies are proposed: Hybaphe Cook under Isaphe Cook, H. curtipes Cook under I. tersa, and Leptodesmus (Isaphe) simplex Chamberlin under Harpaphe haydeniana haydeniana (Wood).