These weird looking creatures are amazing FLAT MILLIPEDES from Africa! 

There are many species of flat millipedes in Africa, just two of which are featured on this page and in my collection. Many other flat millipede species actually live all over the tropics and they look very different to their more 'normal' cylindrically-shaped millipede cousins!  These flat millipede species do in fact look a bit more like centipedes, which are much more commonly flattened in shape, but there are important differences between them.

 The most important difference between flat millipedes and centipedes is that flat millipedes have two pairs of legs per body segment, as all millipedes do and as you can see above, whereas centipedes only have one pair of legs per segment. 

There are many other differences, including that centipedes are predatory and millipedes are not, but the 4 legs per segment of a millipede compared to 2 for a centipede is the most important distinguishing feature!