Polyxenus fasciculatus

{{Short description|Species of millipede}}

{{Speciesbox

| image =

| status = G5

| status_system = TNC

| status_ref = {{cite web|url=http://explorer.natureserve.org/servlet/NatureServe?searchName=Polyxenus+fasciculatus|title=Polyxenus fasciculatus - Say, 1821|date=11 July 2011|website=NatureServe Explorer: An online encyclopedia of life [web application]. Version 7.1.|publisher= NatureServe, Arlington, Virginia|accessdate=December 27, 2014}}

| genus = Polyxenus

| species = fasciculatus

| authority = Say, 1821

}}

Polyxenus fasciculatus is a species of polyxenid millipede about {{convert|2|mm|in}} long which is notable for its use of detachable bristles which entangle predatory ants. The bristles have grappling hooks at the tip which lock on to the setae of an ant, and barbs along their length which cause them to interlink .{{cite journal | doi = 10.1073/pnas.93.20.10848 | author = Thomas Eisner, Maria Eisner and Mark Deyrup | title= Millipede defense: use of detachable bristles to entangle ants | journal = Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | volume = 93 |date=October 1996 | pages = 10848–10851 |url=http://www.pnas.org/content/93/20/10848.full.pdf | issue=20 | pmid=8855269 | pmc=38244| bibcode = 1996PNAS...9310848E | doi-access = free }} The species can be found in the eastern United States, in a region stretching from Maryland to Illinois to Texas. It has also been found in the Caribbean Islands and Canary Islands.{{cite journal|last=Hoffman |first=R. L. |title=Checklist of the millipeds of North and Middle America |journal=Virginia Museum of Natural History Special Publications |year=1999 |volume=8 |pages=1–553}} p. 13