Helicorthomorpha

This small three-species genus hails from Asia, stretching from China and Japan through Myanmar and Vietnam down to Indonesia (1), though H. holstii has been introduced to Florida and Hawaii in the USA, and may have been spread further afield in a fashion similar to other pest species like Asiomorpha coarctata and Oxidus gracilis (2).

Testament to its survivability as a pest, H. holstii, the only species in culture, has been shown to breed on everything from standard millipede substrate to Better Nature brand garden soil, though it greatly appreciates squash and rotting leaves in captivity. Specimens go from egg to adult in under three months.

Unlike other paradoxosomatids, this genus has rounded paranota, with bright orange half-moons or orange slice-shaped patterning on the top of each segment connected by thinner lines of orange, with black bordering this. Near where the legs, which are orange, connect with each segment the body turns again to an orange coloration. The elongate antenna are a brownish color. It reaches to roughly 0.8"/2 cm.

1. Sierwald, P.; Spelda, J. (2021). MilliBase. Helicorthomorpha Attems, 1914. Accessed at: http://www.millibase.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=891709 on 2021-12-24

2. Howarth, F.G., & Shelley R.M. (2010). The Asian polydesmidan milliped, Helicorthomorpha holstii (Pocock) (Paradoxosomatidae), established in Hawai‘i. Bishop Museum Occasional Papers. Accessed at: http://hbs.bishopmuseum.org/pubs-online/pdf/op108p45.pdf on 2021-12-24