STUDIES FOOD AND FEEDING HABITS, FOOD PREFERENCE AND FEEDING MECHANISM IN THE MILLIPEDE JONESPELTIS SPLEDIDUS VERHOEFF IN CAPTIVITY

The adults of J. splentidus Verhoeff when offered leaf litter in different stages of decay, accepted only the litter in its advanced stage of decay. They showed preference to a few species of litter from the ten different species of plants offered, specifically the litters of Artocarpus, Terminalia and Macaranga. The litter of plants tested include Anacardium and Eucalyptus which contains well known secondary plant substances. When sugar and poly phenol content of fresh litter was estimated, it was found that the preferred litter was having comparatively a very low polyphe­nol content and high percentage of sugar. The morphology of mouth parts and the feeding mechanism of the animal were also noted.