The LA Times has an article about a new millipede species discovered in Southern California. The discovery was made by prolific iNaturalist users @cedric_lee and @silversea_starsong who posted their original find from Orange County to iNaturalist.
The new species is a tiny soil dwelling millipede called Illacme socal
Congrats Cedric and James on the awesome find and thanks for making so many cool observations over the years! Your observations and enthusiasm have both really contributed to my iNaturalist journey in Southern California. I’ll leave it to you guys to say more about the discovery!
There was more-or-less a general group discussion on the name. I usually prefer the stuffy old “traditional” Latin names, so a slang epithet like “socal” isn’t my first choice, but the sooner I get with the changing times the better!
Finding this thing was completely happenstance and really quite crazy. I had been introduced to this odd blind subterranean order of millipedes only just prior via an iNaturalist observation. It’s a widespread but rarely seen group, and there had learned equally that no species were known in Southern California. So you can imagine my surprise when I then uncovered this thing in my own stomping grounds! I found a particularly rare native slug on that day, and that was what prompted Cedric to come out there on another visit. Fortunately the millipedes were found again and since he had the lab and collecting equipment, we were able to take specimens to send off. We got in touch with Paul at a later date. A great example of both teamwork and the awareness that iNaturalist can provide for important discoveries.
My main choice would have been to commemorate orange county or the park it was found in in some way, since we have very few species representing our county here. But it was later also found in LA county.