Great Britain famously used Australia as a penal colony—a place to which they could send the worst of their worst criminals in order to get them as far away from civilized society as possible.

Well it looks like the bugs have started using Australia that way, too:

The word "millipede" literally means "thousand feet." But until now, the moniker for the creepy invertebrates has been a bit of an exaggeration, with none of them sporting anything close to that many feet — or legs.

However, a new millipede discovered by Bruno Buzatto, a principal biologist at Bennelongia Environmental Consultants in Perth, Australia, lives up to the true meaning of its name.

The researchers counted them all and one specimen of the newly discovered Eumillipes persephone has a total of 1,306 legs. That easily outpaces the previous record holder, a millipede with 750 legs.

Just for reference, the 750-legged millipede, discovered several years ago, looks like this:

So basically you take that sucker, nearly double it, and then you've got your 1,300-legged monster.

I will not be booking any flights to Australia in the near future thank you!

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