Harpaphe haydeniana, commonly known as the yellow-spotted millipede, almond-scented millipede or cyanide millipede, is a species of polydesmidan ("flat-backed") millipede found in the moist forests along the Pacific coast of North America, from Southeast Alaska to California. The dark coloration with contrasting yellow-tipped keels warn of its ability to exude toxic hydrogen cyanide as a defense. Despite the various common names given the species, the coloration pattern, cyanide defense, and associated almond scent occur in other flat-backed millipedes around the world.
Desmoxytes, whose species are commonly known as the dragon millipedes, is a genus of millipedes of the family Paradoxosomatidae found in Southeast Asia. The genus was described by Ralph Vary Chamberlin in 1923, and reviewed by Sergei Golovatch and Henrik Enghoff in 1994. At least 18 species are known from to Malaysia, Myanmar, and Thailand. One species, D. planata, has also been observed in Sri Lanka, the Andaman Islands, Seychelles, Java, Great Coco Island, and Fiji; however, this species has expanded its range by being transported through human activity. Several species have only recently been discovered, and some have yet to be officially described.
Xystodesmidae is a family of millipedes. Its members often have very small distributional areas, with many species only known from a single locality. They are found across the northern hemisphere, with peak diversity in the Appalachian Mountains, where one-third of the 300 or so species occur. They are particularly abundant in deciduous broadleaf forests in the Mediterranean Basin, Africa, Asia, Central and North America, and Russia. Information on basic taxonomy is scant for this family; for example, it is estimated that the genus Nannaria contains over 200 species, but only 25 were described as of 2006. By 2022, 78 species in Nannaria have been described.
Motyxia is a genus of cyanide-producing millipedes that are endemic to the southern Sierra Nevada, Tehachapi, and Santa Monica mountain ranges of California. Motyxias are blind and produce the poison cyanide, like all members of the Polydesmida. All species have the ability to glow brightly: some of the few known instances of bioluminescence in millipedes.
Harpaphe is a genus of flat-backed millipedes native to the Pacific Northwest of North America. The genus contains three described species: two occurring only in northern California, and one with a large range extending from Southeast Alaska to Central California.
Tylobolus is a genus of millipedes in the order Spirobolida with seven known species found in western North America. It is in the family Spirobolidae, and is the type genus of the subfamily Tylobolinae. The genus was named by Orator F. Cook in 1904.
Casimir Albrecht Willem Jeekel (1922–2010) was a Dutch myriapodologist and entomologist known for his major contributions to the taxonomy of millipedes. His 1971 monograph Nomenclator Generum et Familiarum Diplopodorum is credited as launching the "modern era" of millipede taxonomy, and has been considered the "most important single work ever published on the Diplopoda". He served as director of the Zoological Museum Amsterdam, and authored over 150 works on the taxonomy of millipedes and other myriapods.
Platyrhacidae is a family of polydesmidan millipedes distributed in Southeast Asia and tropical Central and South America.
Paeromopodidae is a family of large cylindrical millipedes of the order Julida native to the western United States of America. The family contains two genera and ten species and includes the longest millipedes in North America, with individuals reaching up to 16.5 cm (6.5 in) long.
Paeromopus is a genus of large cylindrical millipedes endemic to the U.S. state of California. All species exceed 10 centimeters in length, and the largest, P. paniculus, reaching 16.5 cm is the longest millipede species in North America. The genus was named by German entomologist Ferdinand Karsch in 1881 and contains four species: three occupying small ranges in the Sierra Nevada mountains and one occupying a large range including the Sierra Nevada and much of Northern California to the Central Coast.
Paeromopus paniculus is a species of millipede endemic to the Sierra Nevada mountains in the United States state of California. Reaching up to 16.5 centimeters in length, it is the longest known millipede in North America.
Californiulus yosemitensis is a species of cylindrical millipede in the family Paeromopodidae that is found in western North America: predominantly in the Sierra Nevada of California but also extending into southeastern Oregon and parts of Nevada.
Parafontaria is a genus of "flat-backed" millipedes consisting of 13 species native to Japan, where they are referred to as train millipedes. This is because some species exhibit periodical swarming behavior during which large numbers congregate and can impact train passage when this congregation occurs on tracks. Documentation of this event goes back to 1920. Individuals vary from around 3.5 to 6 cm as adults, and feed on leaf litter as well as soil, making them comparable to earthworms in facilitating decomposition and soil nutrient cycling.
Paeromopus angusticeps is a species of millipede found in the U.S. state of California. It occupies the largest geographic range of all four species of Paeromopus, occupying much of Northern California in a large arc extending from Monterey County on the central coast, north along the Coast Ranges to Humboldt County, and descending along the Cascades and Sierra Nevada range of eastern California. P. angusticeps is largely absent from California's Central Valley.
Apheloria is a genus of flat-backed millipedes in the family Xystodesmidae, occurring in the central and southeastern United States, and ranging as far north as southern Quebec, Canada. They are aposematically colored in black and contrasting reds and yellows, and some species in the Appalachian Mountains resemble species of Brachoria where they co-occur, a phenomenon known as Müllerian mimicry.
Brachoria dentata, the Pennington Gap mimic millipede, is an Appalachian mimic millipede in the Xystodesmidae family.
Pleuroloma flavipes, commonly known as the wandering cherry millipede, is a species of flat-backed millipede in the family Xystodesmidae. It has the widest distribution of any species of xystodesmid millipede and is found in eastern North America from southeastern North Dakota, eastward to Connecticut, and southward to North Carolina, northern Louisiana, and southern Texas. Pleuroloma flavipes millipedes are occasionally observed in large aggregations of individuals where they appear to move en masse in a certain direction, hence the common name "wandering cherry millipede". In a report from 1950, an aggregation of about 6,000 individuals were encountered on a single bridge at McCormick's Creek State Park, Indiana. The species is extremely variable in coloration, and converges in appearance with several species of Apheloria and Brachoria as a result of mimicry.
The genus Nannaria, commonly known as twisted-claw millipedes, is a genus of millipedes in the family Xystodesmidae first described by Ralph Chamberlin in 1918. In 2022, entomologists Derek Hennen, Jackson Means and Paul Marek discovered and described 17 new species, which expanded the size of Nannaria to 78, making it the largest genus of Xystodesmidae.
Xystocheir dissecta is a species of flat-backed millipede in the family Xystodesmidae. It is found in North America.
The Swift twisted-claw millipede is a species of millipede found only in the Appalachian mountains of the U.S. state of Tennessee. Its scientific name is Nannaria swiftae, classified under the millipede order Polydesmida and family Xystodesmidae. It was discovered and described by entomologists Derek Hennen, Jackson Means and Paul Marek in 2022, expanding the genus Nannaria to 78 species. Hennen named the millipede in honor of American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift.
