Kings Mountain Milliped Fauna 
35 
A. erythropygos — were common in all three months as both juveniles 
and adults. Seven diplopods were encountered rarely (less than ten 
specimens) and were collected during only one month {A. corticarius, B. 
lusitanus, Teniulus sp., C. medialis, and T. dux), or two months {N. 
minutus, and Striaria sp.) These data indicate that milliped faunas should 
be sampled on a seasonal basis, a practice not generally followed to date, 
and that collections in spring and fall may produce species not available 
in summer. 
Comparison of Faunas and Significance to North Carolina 
Spencer Mountain is separated from the contiguous Kings-Crow- 
ders ridge by approximately 15 km of urbanized Piedmont, and as shown 
in Table 4 fewer milliped species occur at the inselberg. At both Spencer 
Mountain (S/G = 1.00) and Kings-Crowder ridge (S/G = 1.05) every 
genus is represented by one species with the sole exception of Ptyoiulus, 
for which both species are present at Kings-Crowders ridge. At Spencer 
Mountain, however, three less families, seven less genera, and eight less 
species (8/11/14/14) were encountered than at Kings-Crowders ridge 
(8/14/21/22). The two areas had 12 species in common — P.fasciculatus, 
P. ectenes, N. americanus, A. magnum, D. georgianum, C. annulata, O. 
gracilis, P. branneri, S. granulatus, A. erythropygos, B. stricta, and S. 
latior. Two species collected only at Spencer Mountain, A. corticarius 
and T. dux, were found in such low numbers (Table 3) that their absence 
from the Kings-Crowders ridge could well be a collecting artifact. 
The same is true of the apparent absence of six species from Spencer 
Mountain — P. strictum, B. lusitanus, N. minutus, Teniulus sp., C. 
medialis, and Striaria sp. Of the remaining five species absent from Spen- 
cer Mountain, P. impressus, B. stricta, and P.c. incursus have western or 
southern ranges that may well end at Kings-Crowders ridge. Two 
xystodesmids, C. catawba and D. lea, could occur at Spencer Mountain, 
since both were collected from Lincoln County in the 1950s. Their 
presence seems doubtful, however, since the extensive searches for 
diplopods at Spencer Mountain would surely have revealed these large, 
brightly colored, and obvious millipeds. Thus, the absence of these five 
species from Spencer Mountain may be real. 
In addition to faunal distinctions between the two areas, color pat- 
tern variation was noted in S. latior. As discussed in the species account, 
specimens from Spencer Mountain displayed yellow paranota and stripes 
along the caudal edges of the metaterga, whereas those from Kings- 
Crowders ridge had yellow paranota but lacked the metatergal stripes. 
No anatomical differences were detected, and both color patterns are 
representative of intergrades. This is the first report of S. latior inter- 
grades without stripes, a trait characteristic of the nominate subspecies. 
The diplopod fauna of the Kings Mountain region is also compared 
with the faunas of the eastern Piedmont and Appalachian Mountains 
(numerical data for the Great Smoky Mountains) in Table 4, and is 
