﻿PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



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SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 

 U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Vol. 102 Washington: 1951 No. 3300 



A NEW GENUS OF CENTRAL AMERICAN MILLIPED 

 (FAMILY EURYURIDAE), WITH NOTES ON THE AMER- 

 ICAN GENERA. 



By Richard L. Hoffman 



Whu.e sorting out unidentified millipeds in the collection of the 

 United States National Museum, I encountered a single male speci- 

 men that represents an unnamed genus (here described) of the family 

 Euryuridae. Investigation of pertinent literature has revealed sev- 

 eral taxonomic errors that may be corrected at this time, and it appears 

 that at least one genus (Polylepiscus) is readily separable into two 

 more natural groups. 



Together with these various additions and emendations, I include 

 new distributional records for two species of AmpUnus, and a consid- 

 eration of the known American euryurid genera with reference to 

 some diagnostic characters whose value seems questionable. A tenta- 

 tive key to the genera is provided. 



The Euryuridae is a small family (12 genera and about 50 species) 

 with many of the characters of the Platyrrhacidae and with nearly the 

 same distribution. Both families are represented in the Indo-Aus- 

 tralian region and in tropical America; species of Euryunos and 

 Auturus also invade the North Temperate Zone as far as Ohio and 

 Minnesota. 



The most recent, and only complete, account of the Euryuridae is 

 to be found in Attems' monumental Polydesmoidea monogi'aph (Das 

 Tierreich, Lief. 68-70, 1937-1940). This manual lists all known spe- 

 cies and because of its conservatism affords an excellent starting point 

 for taxonomic studies. Attems combines the Euryuridae and 



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