Proceedings of 

 the United States 

 National Museum 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION • WASHINGTON, D.C. 



Volume 111 I960 Nurabcr 3424 



MILLIPEDS FROM DOMINICA, BRITISH WEST INDIES 



By Richard L. Hoffman ^ 



While a member of the Smithsonian-Bredin 1956 Caribbean Expedi- 

 tion, Dr. J. F. Gates Clarke of the Division of Insects, U.S. National 

 Museum, collected arthropods on the faunistically little-known island 

 of Dominica, in the West Indies. Although primarily concerned with 

 insects. Dr. Clarke nonetheless obtained a sizeable collection of 

 niillipeds, which he kindly transmitted to me for identification and 

 study. 



Because of this island's geographic location at the midlength of the 

 Lesser Antilles, its mountainous terrain with several rather high peaks, 

 and especially its unspoiled condition (it is considered to be the island 

 least disturbed by man of all the West Indies), one would suspect 

 that the diplopod fauna of Dominica might contain species of con- 

 siderable interest and utility in working out the problem of zoogeog- 

 raphy in the Antillean region. That this belief is true is more implied 

 than proven by collections made to date. The collections are notable 

 in showing the presence of several endemic species, one of which has 

 no relatives elsewhere in the islands, and in indicating the absence or 

 extreme scarcity of several genera that are common and widespread 

 in the Caribbean area. Obviously, more collecting is needed to con- 

 firm these preliminary impressions, particularly in the more remote 

 mountains of the island and with special attention devoted to the 

 search for the small humus-dwelling forms that normally escape the 

 general collector. 



> Department of Biology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Blacksburg, Virginia. 



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