Spirobolida

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Spirobolida
NarceusAmericanusMillipede.jpg
Narceus americanus
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Myriapoda
Class: Diplopoda
Superorder: Juliformia
Order: Spirobolida
Bollman, 1893
Families

12: See text

Synonyms
  • Anocheta Cook, 1895
  • Haplogonophora Brolemann, 1931

Spirobolida is an order of "round-backed" millipedes containing approximately 500 species in 12 families. [1] Its members are distinguished by the presence of a "pronounced suture that runs "vertically down the front of the head". [2] Most of the species live in the tropics, and many are brightly coloured. [2] Mature males have two pairs of modified legs, the gonopods, consisting of the 8th and 9th leg pair: the posterior gonopods are used in sperm-transfer while the anterior gonopods are fused into a single plate-like structure. [3]

Contents

Front and rear views of the anterior (A, B) and posterior left (C, D) gonopods of a spirobolidan Aphistogoniulus jeekeli holotype gonopods 02.png
Front and rear views of the anterior (A, B) and posterior left (C, D) gonopods of a spirobolidan

The families are divided into two suborders: [1]

Suborder Spirobolidea

Suborder Trigoniulidea

Select species

References

  1. 1 2 Shear, W. (2011). "Class Diplopoda de Blainville in Gervais, 1844. In: Zhang, Z.-Q. (Ed.) Animal biodiversity: An outline of higher-level classification and survey of taxonomic richness" (PDF). Zootaxa . 3148: 159–164.
  2. 1 2 Stephen P. Hopkin & Helen J. Read (1992). "Taxonomy, evolution, and zoogeography". The Biology of millipedes. Oxford University Press. pp. 8–23. ISBN   978-0-19-857699-0.
  3. ↑ "Putative apomorphies of millipede clades" (PDF). Milli-PEET: Millipede Systematics. The Field Museum, Chicago, IL. 26 September 2006.
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