Short of a thousand

I was busy in the garden lately and came across one of these creatures

The millipede it doesn’t need
From father, mother to be freed
Learn how to stand on many feet
Or what it shouldn’t try to eat

Its thoughts it seems are very few
To know just where it’s going to
And why, perhaps it ought to know
To give a reason there to go

Four or five hundred million years
They’ve crawled around so it appears
Long before man came on the scene
And thought evolved from what had been

So long on Earth they’ve been around
Ten thousand species now abound
Most eating vegetation old
But some have now become so bold

To eat what man has put aside
And hopes from hungry eyes to hide
There are a few who need to feed
On insect, worm or centipede

See all those legs that keep in line
And move in waves by strange design
Eighteen at least each side they host
And near four hundred at the most

They can up to ten years survive
And curl up tight to stay alive
Or with secretions burn their prey
And prickle humans if they may

Two millimeters small are some
Two hundred plus the large become
If you should now wish to learn more
Then here’s a site you can’t ignore.