The Great Millipede Project

Millipedes perform an invaluable ecological service in the form of detritus fragmentation and nutrient recycling yet they remain a largely unexplored group, with only 12,000 of the predicted 60,000 to 80,000 species currently described. Furthermore, the impact of habitat fragmentation and degradation have made collection-based research imperative to counteract the loss of species before their discovery and to understand critically threatened biodiversity and its pivotal role in ecosystem function. SaveNature.Org has teamed up with students, families, Girl Scouts and Boys and Girls Clubs as a means of gathering critical information about the ecology and distribution of this understudied taxonomic group. The mission is to record the natural history data on iNaturalist to learn more about these arthropods.