Mystery millipedes discovered

Professor Somsak Panha and one of the new species of millipede his team discovered.

A dozen new species of millipede have been discovered in Thailand, scientists announced yesterday.

Eleven were discovered in the southern provinces of Surat Thani, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Trang, Krabi, PangNga and Satun, while the other was found in Uthai Thani in the Central Region, said Professor Somsak Panha, a lecturer at Chulalongkorn University's Faculty of Science and the man who led the team that made the discoveries.

"Their unique colouring, habitats and reproductive organs were what separated them from other previously known species," Somsak said, adding that all of the newly discovered millipedes have been identified as belonging to the Thyropygus genus.

DNA extracted

An estimated 105 species had been discovered in Thailand by foreign scientists before Somsak's team began their quest in 2005. To date, around 3,000 millipede species have been identified around the world.  

"The discovery of these 12 new species has been published in international journals and they have been added to the zoological record," Somsak said. "We are still analysing another 30 species collected from every region of the country. We expect many will be recorded as new discoveries by the end of the year."

"We suspect that Thailand probably has more than 500 species of millipedes. The research with my team is ongoing," he added.

The team will also extract the DNA of some of those species as a measure towards protecting rare specimens.   

The discoveries were made with the backing of the Thailand Research Fund and the National Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology.