Diplopoda belong to the oldest landliving animals and today, nearly 10.000 species of Diplopoda are existing. The name Diplopoda is because each body segment has two pairs of legs (two segments are affiliated to one - that is the reason, why it has two pairs of legs on each segment).

The most species live near the ground in the soil or rotten wood and eat herbal waste, plants and their fruits. Only a few specimen are known to be predators.

Beside the common millipedes of the order Diplopoda I want to point out two genera with special anatomy and body structures: Polydesmida (flat millipedes) and Pentazonia (pill millipedes). The members of Polydesmida or so called "flat millipedes" look ancient and simultaneous spacy and the members of Pentazonia can coil up to a pill for defensing themselves. Tropical species grow up to a size of a tennis ball!