Newly Discovered California Millipede Is (Almost) All Legs

SEQUOIA NATIONAL PARK, California (AP) - What has 414 legs and four penises? Until recently, nothing. Or so it was thought.

Scientists have discovered new species of millipede with just those far-out features in a cave in California's Sequoia National Park.

The pale bug's 414 legs are actually fairly meager for a millipede. Some species can have as many as 750. None have 1,000, though the name means "thousand feet."

Like some other species, this millipede also has four modified legs that are used as penises.

The discovery made by Jean Krejca of the Texas group Zara Environmental LLC was detailed in a statement released Monday. Millipede experts Paul Marek at Virginia Tech and Bill Shear at Virginia's Hampden-Sydney College classified the critter.

It is named illacme tobini, a play on the name Ben Tobin, a former cave biologist with the National Park Service.