| Spirobolida | |
|---|---|
) | |
| Narceus americanus | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| 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]
)
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
- Allopocockiidae
- Atopetholidae
- Floridobolidae
- Hoffmanobolidae
- Messicobolidae
- Pseudospirobolellidae
- Rhinocricidae
- Spirobolellidae
- Spirobolidae
- Typhlobolellidae
Suborder Trigoniulidea
- Pachybolidae
- Trigoniulidae
Select species
- Narceus americanus, a commonly seen species in eastern North America
- Crurifarcimen vagans, the "Wandering Leg Sausage"
- Anadenobolus monilicornis, the Yellow-banded Millipede
- Eucarlia, a genus of threatened Indo-Pacific millipedes
References
- ^ a b 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.
- ^ a b 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.
- ^ "Putative apomorphies of millipede clades" (PDF). Milli-PEET: Millipede Systematics. The Field Museum, Chicago, IL. 26 September 2006.
External links
Media related to Spirobolida at Wikimedia Commons
Data related to Spirobolida at Wikispecies- "Spirobolida" at the Encyclopedia of Life
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