A NEW AFRICAN MILLIPED OBSERVED 
IN MIGRATION 
By Ralph V. Chamberlin 
University of Utah 
The mass migration of millipeds is a phenomenon that 
has been observed in species of various families of Julida, 
Spirobolida and Polydesmida. The phenomenon has 
never been adequately studied or explained. To the list 
of those observed in such migration may now be added 
an African member of the Spirostreptida, herein first 
named and described. Dr. Neal A. Weber, who collected 
specimens and submitted them to me for identification, 
supplies the following on the occurrence and behavior of 
this form as he noted them in the field : 
4 • The animals were discovered Mar. 2, 1948 at the junc- 
tion of the Vele and Bomokandi Rivers, Lat. 3°38" N. and 
Long. 26°8 // E. There were thousands milling about at the 
river ’s edge and many had crawled into the river and 
drowned. There were at least 500 millipeds in one place 
hanging on a nearly vertical slope of the river bank. In 
an area of a hundred square meters there were at least 
5,000 or that order of magnitude and they were spread 
over about 150 meters along the river’s edge. The air 
temperature was 89.5° F. Eight kilometers away a few 
of the same animals were to be found as well as smaller 
numbers between that point and the river. This was the 
time approaching the end of the dry season, and it may 
well be that the population had gradually built Aip to this 
peak and migration ensued. There were no animals 
preying on these and no obvious cause impelling their 
migration in this direction and into the river where they 
drowned. The land was not flooded back of this area.” 
Zantekius, new genus 
A genus of the Spiro streptidse related to Mardonius 
and Eumehius of Central Africa and Madagascar. Spira- 
cles beginning on the sixth segment. Metazonites without 
trace of longitudinal keels, being smooth above and striate 
184 
