[2][3] The garden symphylan occurs in most parts of the world, having been transported inadvertently with plants: it probably originated in Europe.

It lives in humus-rich soil, under stones, in leaf litter, in rotting wood, in decaying matter and in other moist places.

The male deposits small stalked spermatophores which the female picks up, storing the sperm in receptacles in her mouth.

[3] She produces eggs singly through a gonopore on the fourth segment, and transfers them by mouth to a frond of moss or similar location, where each is fixed and smeared with sperm.

Development is direct; the newly hatched juvenile has six pairs of legs, and these increase in number as the animal grows extra segments.