INTRODUCTION 



The milliped fauna of Mexico and Central America is very poorly 

 known. Records of it are scattered through a large number of papers, 

 only two of which apply to the area in its entirety. The first of these 

 was by Henri Saussure and Alois Humbert, in 1872, and contained a 

 catalog which was rather brief, needless to say, of the centipeds and 

 millipeds then known from North and South America. The second com- 

 prehensive publication was by R. L Focock, on the same groups in 

 Mexico and Central America, appearing in the Biologia Centrali- Americana 

 from 1903 to 1910. Not only did this paper list all the previously known 

 milliped species of these regions, many with supplemental descriptions, 

 illustrations, and new locality records, but it added illustrated descrip- 

 tions of 87 new ones and, for the first time, included complete keys to 

 the various classification categories then in use. This paper today 

 remains the outstanding systematic work on the Diplopoda of the area 

 included in this checklist. 



Since 1910 only four other noteworthy papers have been published, 

 all on smaller portions of the area. l.--The Millipeds of Central America, 

 R. V. Chamberlin, in 1922, recataloged the known species and added 

 many new ones, but did not include any Mexican forms. 2. —On Mexican 

 Millipeds, same author, in 1943, cataloged the Mexican species he had 

 previously described and added new ones. 2>.--Myriapoden aus El Salvador, 

 0. Kraus, 1954, cataloged previously known species, with new locality 

 records, and described new ones. 4^.— The Millipeds of Panama, H. F. 

 Loomis, 1964, cataloged previously known species, with new locality 

 records, described new ones, and gave keys to all categories as well as 

 a bibliography of papers relating to the Panamanian species. This is the 

 only extensive bibliography that has appeared on Mexican or Central 

 American Diplopoda. Besides these four papers and the two previously 

 mentioned, a total of more than 200 smaller ones apply to the area. 



Today this scattered literature contains descriptions and records of 

 over 750 more or less well-known species, but this number is only a 

 small part of the undiscovered ones inhabiting this vast warm- temperate 

 to tropical area. 



A major reason for the backward state of our knowledge of the millipeds 

 of this region, or most of its parts, probably is that none of the eight 

 countries ever has produced a recognized diplopod taxonomist or any 

 outstanding collectors, other than Drs. 0. Bolivar and F. Bonet, of 

 Mexico City, on whose collection Chamberlin based his Mexican paper 

 in 1943. Thus foreign taxonomists and collectors have been the principal 



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