Here's another one.

It is NOT a shed skin. It is definitely a chitinous exoskeleton.

That hole is about 1/4" in diameter. The whole thing is about 1/2" across. It is long, and it does not seem to taper like an insectoid abdomen should. Unless it;s an insect with a looong abdomen.

It is the exoskeleton of a millipede. Some millipedes have that flange at the edge of each segment.

Then that's the biggest millipede I've ever seen!

I've been poking around in forest detritus for 50 years, I have never seen a millipede bigger than ~3mm in diameter.

This post was edited by davec426913 on Sun, Oct 19, 14 at 9:33

I love the mossy photo. Where are you located? PNW?

Here's the type of millipede I was referring to.

Davec - I guess it depends where you live. In the SW and SC US millipedes regularly exceed six inches long and are regularly 6+mm in diameter.

This post was edited by FHFchrish on Mon, Oct 20, 14 at 9:16

In the coastal redwoods there are the black ones with yellow spots that are pretty large. I don't think they are that round though. They are either out in numbers or entirely invisible. The kids just love it when they're out.

There are some larger dark brown round ones in the redwoods but harder to find and I don't know what they're called.

And I don't know what you're looking at, and if the color has faded, but they're kinda cool!

Here is a link that might be useful: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harpaphe_haydeniana

I am in Toronto. This was taken in a forest reserve northeast of the city: 44.016N 79.36W.

In 50 years, I have never seen a millipede anywhere near that size.

Here's a link to a picture of a big one from Southern Illinois. Other species get several times larger than this.

Here is a link that might be useful: