Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Type: Article
Published: 2003-04-09
Page range: 1–8
Abstract views: 41
PDF downloaded: 4

Redescription of the milliped Amphelictogon subterraneus bahamiensis Chamberlin, 1918, with an assessment of the family Chelodesmidae in the Bahamas (Polydesmida: Leptodesmidea)

Research Lab., North Carolina State Museum of Natural Sciences, 4301 Reedy Creek Rd., Raleigh, NC 27607 USA
Myriapoda Bahamas Andros Eleuthera Cat Island Cayo Coco Great Bahama Bank rafting Amphelictogon subterraneus bahamiensis

Abstract

The milliped Amphelictogon subterraneus bahamiensis Chamberlin, 1918, the only representative of the family Chelodesmidae in the Bahamas and the only one in the New World occurring in part north of the Tropic of Cancer, is recorded from Eleuthera Island in addition to published localities from Andros and Cat Islands, Bahamas, and Cayo Coco, Cuba, where it is common. A redescription in English is provided along with gonopod drawings in medial and lateral views; a female cyphopod is illustrated for the first time. The populations on these three Bahamian islands probably represent isolated fragments of a once continuous population on the Pleistocene “super-island” on Great Bahama Bank, which in turn likely originated through rafting from the area of Cuba that now includes Cayo Coco. Investigations are needed to learn whether the species still survives on Andros, Eleuthera, and Cat islands, and whether additional populations occur on other islands that were once joined in the Pleistocene land mass.

References

  1. Attems, C. (1938) Myriapoda 3. Polydesmoidea II. Fam. Leptodesmidae, Platyrhacidae, Oxydesmidae, Gomphodesmidae. Das Tierreich, 69, 1-487.

    Chamberlin, R.V. (1918) The Chilopoda and Diplopoda of the West Indies. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 62, 151-262.

    Golovatch, S.I., Hoffman, R.L. & Adis, J. (1999) A new species of Chondrodesmus SILVESTRI, 1897, from near Tefé, Central Amazonia, Brazil, with first ecological observations (Diplopoda, Polydesmida, Chelodesmidae). Amazoniana, 15(3/4), 269-277.

    Hoffman, R.L. (1959) Antrogonodesmus, a new chelodesmoid genus from Cuba, and a redescription of Amphelictogon dolius Chamberlin (Polydesmida, Chelodesmidae). Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences, 49(8), 84-89.

    Hoffman, R.L. (1963) A new species of Amphelictogon from Cuba with a preliminary classification of the genus (Polydesmida: Chelodesmidae). Entomologische Mitteilungen aus dem Zoologischen Staatsinstitut und Zoologischen Museum Hamburg, 2(43), 1-8.

    Hoffman, R.L. (1978) Chelodesmid studies. XI. A new genus and species from Venezuela, referable to the new tribe Chondrodesmini. Revue suisse de Zoologie, 85, 543-551.

    Hoffman, R.L. (1980)[1979] Classification of the Diplopoda. Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle, Genève, Switzerland, 237 pp.

    Hoffman, R.L. (1994) An interesting disjunct new genus of prepodesmine millipeds from Nigeria (Polydesmida: Chelodesmidae). Myriapodologica, 3(5), 37-42.

    Hoffman, R.L. (1999) Checklist of the Millipeds of North and Middle America. Virginia Museum of Natural History Special Publication No. 8, 1-584.

    Loomis, H.F. (1934) Millipeds of the West Indies and Guiana collected by the Allison V. Armour expedition in 1932. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 89, 1-69.

    Loomis, H.F. (1941) A new Cuban milliped, with notes and drawings of other West Indian species. Psyche, 48, 35-39.

    Mauriès, J.-P. (1971) Diplopodes épigés et cavernicoles des Pyrénées Espagnoles et des Monts Cantabriques. VI. Polydesmides. Bulletin de la Société d’Histoire Naturelle de Toulouse, 107(1/2), 117-124.

    Mauriès, J.-P. (1974) Intérêt phylogénique et biogéographique de quelques diplopodes récemment décrits du nord de l’Espagne. Symposia of the Zoological Society of London Number 32, 53- 63.

    Pereira, L.A., Minelli, A., & Foddai, D. (1999) Pectiniunguis bollmani n.sp., from the coralline island Cayo Sombrero (Venezuela), with notes on P. halirrhytus Crabill, 1959 (Chilopoda: Geophilomorpha: Schendylidae). Studies on Neotropical Fauna and Environment, 34, 176- 185.

    Pérez-Asso, A. R. (1996) Revisión del género Amphelictogon (Diplopoda: Polydesmida: Chelodesmidae) en Cuba. Insecta Mundi, 10(1-4), 181-216.

    Pérez-Asso, A. R. (1998) Nuevas especies del género Amphelictogon (Diplopoda: Polydesmida: Chelodesmidae) en Cuba. Insecta Mundi, 12(3-4), 161-173.

    Roth, B., & Bogan, A. E. (1984) Shell color and banding parameters of the Liguus fasciatus phenotype (Mollusca: Pulmonata). American Malacological Bulletin, 3, 1-10.

    Shelley, R. M. (2002a) A new milliped of the genus Lepturodesmus from Tobago (Polydesmida: Chelodesmidae). Caribbean Journal of Science, 38(1-2), 146-147.

    Shelley, R. M. (2002b) A synopsis of the North American centipedes of the order Scolopendromorpha (Chilopoda). Virginia Museum of Natural History Memoir 5, 1-108.

    Shelley, R. M., & Kiser, S. B. (2000) Neotype designation and a diagnostic account for the centipede, Scolopendra gigantea L. 1758, with an account of S. galapagoensis Bollman, 1889 (Chilopoda Scolopendromorpha Scolopendridae). Tropical Zoology, 13(1), 159-170.

    Shelley, R. M., Sierwald, P., Kiser, S. B., & Golovatch, S. I. (2000) Nomenclator generum et familiarum Diplopodorum II. A List of the Genus and Family-Group Names in the Class Diplopoda from 1958 through 1999. Pensoft Publishers, Sofia-Moscow, 167 pp.