The millipedes collected by the Museum "La Specola" on Madagascar 1989/1991, with the description of three new species of giant pill-millipedes (Diplopoda, Sphaerotheriida, Arthrosphaeridae)

By

Wesener, Thomas
Anilkumar, Pooja

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2020

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

930

Pages

3--35

Subjects

Biodiversity , COI , introduced species , Madagascar , museum collection

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.930.47620

 

Abstract

A large collection of millipedes (Diplopoda) from Madagascar, belonging to the Museum “La Specola” in Florence, Italy were investigated. The collection includes three new species of the giant pill-millipede genusZoosphaeriumPocock, 1895 which are described here asZoosphaerium mangabeWesener,sp. nov.,Z. bartolozziiAnilkumar & Wesener,sp. nov., andZ. taitiiAnilkumar & Wesener,sp. nov., all belonging to theZ. coquerelianumspecies group. The latter two are currently only known from a single site. Other specimens belonging to eight orders (Polyxenida, Sphaerotheriida, Polyzoniida, Siphonophorida, Chordeumatida, Polydesmida, Spirobolida, and Spirostreptida) are listed. Three tropical tramp species,Pseudospirobolellus avernus(Butler, 1876),Glyphiulus granulatusGervais, 1847, andChondromorpha xanthotricha(Attems, 1898) are recorded for the first time from Madagascar. New locality data is provided forZoosphaerium neptunus(Butler, 1872),Z. villosumWesener & Sierwald, 2005,Z. blandum(de Saussure & Zehntner, 1897),Sphaeromimus musicus(de Saussure & Zehntner, 1897),Rhinotus purpureus(Pocock, 1894),Hylekobolus andasibensisWesener, 2009,Aphistogoniulus infernalisWesener, 2009,Ostinobolus rufusWesener, 2009,Ostinobolus subterraneusWesener, 2009,Dactylobolus bivirgatus(Karsch, 1881), andEumekius antimena(de Saussure & Zehntner, 1901).