When the African millipede, sometimes called a Giant millipede, begins its life, it is white, only one-eighth inch long and has only three pairs of legs. Each time it molts its exoskeleton, it adds a new segment with two new sets of legs and its color becomes darker. Though it never develops a thousand legs, it can grow to the point of having a few hundred. All those legs make it a slow mover, but a good burrower.

Since it is a slow mover, the African millipede can’t run away from predators and has to find other ways to protect itself. A gentle giant, it does not bite or sting. Instead, using its burrowing skills, it stays out of sight during the day, hanging out under leaves and fallen branches on the rainforest floor and waiting until dark to feed. Should it still run across a predator, like a frog, lizard, bird, shrew or hedgehog, the African millipede will coil into a ball and secrete a bad smelling and tasting fluid. This fluid discourages many animals that might try to eat it.

An African millipede doesn’t have very good eyesight, so it depends on its sense of smell. This works out well since it does not have to hunt, but instead enjoys dead plants as its favorite food. Eating dead stuff makes an African millipede a decomposer. This means it has the very important job of eating up all those rotting plants so they don’t keep piling up. The African millipede’s poop then adds nutrients to the soil to make it even better for growing new plants.