by Martin Elster
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| A newfound species of millipede (Eumillipes Persephone) has more legs than any other creature on the planet—a mind-boggling 1,300 of them. The leggy critters live deep below Earth's surface and are the only known millipedes to live up to their name. Image credit: Paul E. Marek, Bruno A. Buzatto, William A. Shear, Jackson C. Means, Dennis G. Black, Mark S. Harvey, Juanita Rodriguez, Scientific Reports via LiveScience, December 16, 2021. |
We look for life on Mars, yet deep below
our feet she’d crept unseen, a creature blessed
with far more legs than any life we know:
thirteen hundred plus! With a great zest
for fungi, she was the world’s cellar-dweller,
ginormously antennaed, lacking eyes—
a tendril. Her recycling skills were stellar
(although she wasn’t looking for a prize!).
Earth’s only millipede uniquely “milli,”
she was the slenderest and longest weed
that we had ever hauled up willy-nilly.
We’ve christened her “Persephone.” Indeed,
although she led a life of utter gloom,
our little cousin helped the flowers bloom.
Martin Elster, who never misses a beat, was for many years a percussionist with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra (now retired). He finds contentment in long woodland walks and writing poetry, often alluding to the creatures and plants he encounters. A full-length collection, Celestial Euphony, was published by Plum White Press in 2019.