Adult specimens are typically 60-65 mm long, yellowish-orange in colour and ca. 1 mm wide at the head.[3] Females can have from 73 to 85 pairs of legs, whereas males can have from 67 to 77 pairs, most often 73 pairs.[4] A specimen from Madagascar with even fewer legs (53 pairs, sex not reported)[5] features the minimum number recorded in the family Orydae.[6]
Distribution
It is a littoral myriapod that can be found throughout sublittoral zones of Indian and East Pacific countries,[7] including Taiwan and Japan, in particular the Okinawan, Yaeyama and Miyama islands, where it is listed as a threatened local population.[3] It has been introduced to south-west Western Australia.[8]
Biology
The species is one of several bioluminescent centipede genera currently known.[3] Upon direct chemical, thermal and physical stimulation, the centipede secretes a clear, but bioluminescent slime from pores in its sternal defense glands, supposedly a form of aposematism.[9] While several genera display this form of bioluminescence, utilising the typical oxygen-dependent luciferin-luciferase reaction, this example is noteworthy due to the low, narrow pH range of the reaction, and the relatively long period of emission.[10]
