Iran Press/ Africa: It is one of 21 “lost” species rediscovered by Re: wild during an expedition to the African island in September last year, the results of which have just been published. The conservation organization aims to locate species that have not been seen and recorded for a minimum of 10 years, hoping that by removing data deficiencies it will be able to help prevent species extinction.
Christina Biggs lost species officer for Re: wild, spotted the giant millipede crawling over her boot outside her tent one morning. “I filmed it for a while because I thought it was cool, having no clue that it was an actual lost species,” she told CNN in an email. “It wasn’t until Dmitry Telnov, a beetle specialist with the Natural History Museum in London, sent material to a German colleague specializing in Madagascan myriapods, that we found out it hadn’t been documented since 1897.”
The longest specimen of the species (scientific name: Spirostreptus sculptus) observed was a gigantic female measuring 27.5 centimeters (10.8 inches). The team was surprised to discover that despite a lack of scientific records, the millipede was in fact fairly common across the rainforest.
“There are so many reasons why a species might not have been documented in over a decade, or (are) ‘lost’ by our definition. Disease, pollution, catastrophic weather, human-wildlife conflict. But sometimes it’s simply because people haven’t looked for it or are less interested because it’s not fuzzy and cute,” said Biggs.
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