Rimmed juice ball
| Rimmed juice ball | ||||||||||||
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Glomeris marginata |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Glomeris marginata | ||||||||||||
| ( Villers , 1789) |
The Gerandete Saftkugler ( Glomeris marginata ), also called the fringed juice ball or synonym Oniscus marginata , is called in English Pill millipede . The scientific name is derived from the Latin glomeris = ball 'and marginare = to enclose'. He has developed a number of clever protective and defense strategies to avoid possible predators, which is also the name of the species. These properties are, for example, the ability to roll up into an asymmetrical ball (spherical ability) or the expulsion of an effective defense secretion.
distribution
Glomeris marginata can be found in large parts of Europe, such as Germany, France , Switzerland , England , Spain , Italy or Sweden .
description
The appearance of Glomeris marginata is similar to that of the roll louse, mainly because of the smooth, high-arched body shape and the ability to curl, whereby it has a more even segmentation. The adults reach a body length of 7 to 20 millimeters and a width of 3.5 to 8 millimeters, whereby the male is on average slightly smaller than the female. The back is covered by twelve plates, the first of which is the pronotum and the second and largest is the breast plate, followed by nine more plates. Their coloring is dark brown to black with white margins. Occasionally, red, yellow, and brown individuals can also appear.
Young animals show a gray-brown basic color and have four light spots per back plate. Their initially white segment edges turn yellowish with age. The females have 17 pairs of legs, the males have two additional, pincer-shaped limbs that can be used when mating.
Reproduction
The gerandete Saftkugler is sexually mature after three to four years. The species reproduces in spring and summer, while the male takes sperm with the mouthparts from his genital orifices and transfers it into the female genital orifices. The female then lays the 70 to 80 fertilized eggs in small, egg-shaped clumps of earth. Depending on the weather conditions, the young hatch after about two months and, if living conditions are favorable, they can live up to 11 years. The development time from hatching to adolescence is 3 years.
ecology
Glomeris marginata is a typical saprobiont that feeds primarily on dead substances such as leaf litter, but also partly on moss, wood and even microorganisms. It could be proven that the bacteria of the ingested food are cultivated in the digestive tract of the animal and excreted in increased numbers. This means that Glomeris marginata itself ensures that microorganisms multiply in the soil. In addition, it seems to be able to bring about this effect even in acidic soils, where normally fungi predominate as decomposers. However, the faeces produced in significant quantities by Glomeris marginata in the form of fecal pellets not only contain bacteria, but also represent an important food source for worms that live in the soil, such as the dewworm .
Special features of the defense strategies
Among the diplopods, the name "Gesäumter Saftkugler" is the only species name that is generally recognized in the German language. The name comes from the fact that, unlike other species, it can completely curl up in case of danger and secrete a defensive secretion in the form of a transparent drop. The defense secretion contains hydrogen cyanide , as well as glomerin and homoglomerin. The latter two ingredients belong to the group of quinazolinones and, in the quantitative concentration of the defense secretion, are able to exert an effective sedative effect on invertebrate predators lasting up to several days . Sedation as a defense in vertebrates has not yet been proven. Quinazolinones are also of importance as sedatives in human medicine.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Glomeris marginata in Fauna Europaea. Retrieved January 13, 2012
- ↑ a b c d Heiko Bellmann (2006): Kosmos-Atlas Arachnids of Europe. Extra: freshwater crabs, woodlice, millipedes. Kosmos (Franckh-Kosmos), 2nd edition, ISBN 3-440-10746-9
- ^ A b Jean-François David, Dominique Gillon (2002): Annual feeding rate of the millipede Glomeris marginata on holm oak (Quercus ilex) leaf litter under Mediterranean conditions. Pedobiologia 46 (1): pp. 42-52, ISSN 0031-4056 , doi : 10.1078 / 0031-4056-00112
- ↑ DE Bignell (1989): Relative assimilations of 14C-labeled microbial tissues and 14C-plant fiber ingested with leaf litter by the millipede Glomeris marginata under experimental conditions. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 21 (6) pp. 819-827, ISSN 0038-0717 , doi : 10.1016 / 0038-0717 (89) 90176-4
- ↑ JM Anderson, DE Bignell (1980): Bacteria in the food, good contents and faeces of the litter-feeding millipede Glomeris marginata (Villers). Soil Biology and Biochemistry 12 (3): pp. 251-254, ISSN 0038-0717 , doi : 10.1016 / 0038-0717 (80) 90070-X
- ↑ P. Ineson, JM Anderson (1985): Aerobically isolated bacteria associated with the gut and faeces of the litter feeding macroarthropods Oniscus asellus and Glomeris marginata. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 17 (6): pp. 843-849, ISSN 0038-0717 , doi : 10.1016 / 0038-0717 (85) 90145-2 .
- ↑ Michael Bonkowski, Stefan Scheu, Matthias Schaefer (1998): Interactions of earthworms (Octolasion lacteum), millipedes (Glomeris marginata) and plants (Hordelymus europaeus) in a beechwood on a basalt hill: implications for litter decomposition and soil formation. Applied Soil Ecology, 9 (1-3): pp. 161-166, ISSN 0929-1393 , doi : 10.1016 / S0929-1393 (98) 00070-5 .
- ↑ James E. Carrel and Thomas Eisner (1983): Spider sedation induced by defensive chemicals of milliped prei. Division of Biological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211; and Section of Neurobiology and Behavior, Division of Biological Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853
Web links
- Diplopoda.de : Information about the Diplododa , March 16, 2012, 7:30 p.m.
- Hypersoil.uni-muenster.de : Information on Glomeris marginata with links to film recordings , March 16, 2012, 7:30 p.m.