The discovery of the new species of anthroleucosomatid millipede, named the Heterocaucaseuma deprofundum, takes the number of species discovered by Portuguese biologist, Ana Sofia Reboleira, to 44.
According to the biologist, who teaches at the Copenhagen University in Denmark, its name is “a reference to the fact that it is the millipede that lives at the deepest-known depths.”
Speaking to Lusa News Agency, Ana Sofia Reboleira described the newly-found insect, which belongs to one of the largest types of millipede, as “lacking body pigment” due to the fact it lives underground and in the dark, and “has very small eyes, very long antennae and legs and feeds on debris.”
Ms. Reboleira is also a speleologist, and has contributed towards the discovery of several new species for science in various caves around the world.
“Unlike deep sea or space exploration, technology does not allow remotely operated vehicles to perform the harvest, so the only way to find these animals is to go in there and collect them from the depths of these cavities”, she stressed.
After gathering them, the millipedes were subjected to a taxonomic study, using advanced microscopic techniques, such as electron microscopy scanning, which allows a 3D view of the external morphology of the organism.
The discovery of millipede “at the greatest depth ever” and as “part of the deepest invertebrate community on the planet”, is, in the biologist’s view, “extraordinarily interesting in terms of the extent of vertical distribution of underground invertebrates.”
The new species can be seen at the Natural History Museum of Denmark, which is part of the University of Copenhagen.