38 
Marianne E. Filka and Rowland M. Shelley 
more proximal Uwharrie Mountains that it must be considered a 
possibility for the Kings Mountain region. Five millipeds known from 
both the Appalachian Mountains and eastern Piedmont must also be 
considered potential occupants of the Kings Mountain region due to its 
location between these two areas. These five species are Polyzonium 
rosalbum (Cope), known from Madison and Moore counties (Shelley 
1976a, 1978); Cleidogona caesioannulata (Wood), reported from Macon, 
Jackson, Transylvania, and Swain counties (Shear 1972) and Granville, 
Orange, Durham, and Johnston counties (Shelley 1978); Branneria 
carimta (Bollman) cited from Transylvania and Macon counties (Shear 
1972), and Wake County (Shelley 1978); Pseudopolydesmus serratus, 
collected in 14 eastern piedmont counties (Shelley 1978), and reported 
generally from the mountains (Chamberlin and Hoffman 1958); and 
Pleuroloma Jlavipes Rafinesque, recorded as Zinaria brunnea from 
Watauga and Moore counties (Wray 1967) and as Pleuroloma sp. from 
Orange and Wake counties (Shelley 1978). 
In addition to species shared with the eastern Piedmont and/or Ap- 
palachian Mountains, a fourth group of three xystodesmids is unique to 
the Kings Mountain region: C. catawba, D. lea, and P.c. incursus. The 
last is known in North Carolina only from the contiguous Kings- 
Crowders ridge, but the others also have been recorded from Lincoln 
County (Shelley 1978; Hoffman 1961), in the area that is the north- 
eastward extension of the range to Anderson Mountain, Catawba 
County. Croatania catawba and P.c. incursus are more common in South 
Carolina and are basically southern forms which extend into North 
Carolina along the Kings Mountain range. Together these two millipeds 
lend a southern aspect to the Kings Mountain fauna, which is not found 
in any other part of North Carolina. Deltotaria lea appears to be endemic 
to a narrow section of the Carolinas, ranging from Lincoln County, 
North Carolina, to Chester County, South Carolina. 
Thus, the Kings Mountain milliped fauna is characterized by its own 
species and the transitional ones it shares with the eastern Piedmont 
Plateau and Appalachian Mountains, together and separately. Only five 
of these species, however, are shared with the Appalachians alone. This, 
plus the low diversity and the lowland nature of the fauna militate against 
a prior direct topographic connection between the Blue Ridge Front and 
the Kings Mountain region. Aside from a general Cretaceous peneplain 
there is no geological evidence for such a connection, just as there is no 
faunal evidence from the diplopods. Unlike the Appalachians, the Kings 
Mountain region does not seem to have ever been a center of milliped 
evolution and dispersal. The five Appalachian species in the area may be 
relicts of a continuous Pleistocene or pre-Pleistocene distribution, as 
suggested by Shelley (1979a) for D. georgianum. The most significant as- 
pect of the Kings Mountain region is its position at the known range 
periphery of several diplopods. It is the northern distribution limit of P c. 
incursus and the northeastern of the genus Pachydesmus (Shelley and 
