Arthrosphaeridae is a family of giant pill millipedes that are found in Madagascar, the Western Ghats of India, and Sri Lanka. The largest pill-millipede in the world, Zoosphaerium neptunus (Butler 1872) belongs to this family and is known to swarm at certain times of the year.[1]
| Arthrosphaeridae | |
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Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum: | Myriapoda |
| Class: | Diplopoda |
| Order: | Sphaerotheriida |
| Family: | Arthrosphaeridae Jeekel, 1974 |
Description edit
The first segment of the anterior telopods have a stridulatory organ known as a "harp" and this has one to ten ribs. The anal plate on the female is enlarged and has 1-12 ribs while the male anal shield has no special sclerotized notch as seen in other families. The segments of the antenna are oval or cylindrical.[2]
Taxonomy edit
Within the family Arthrosphaeridae there are four genus formally described:
- Arthrosphaera Pocock, 1895 – India, Sri Lanka
- Microsphaerotherium Wesener & van den Spiegel, 2007 – Madagascar
- Sphaeromimus de Saussure & Zehntner, 1902 – Southeast Madagascar
- Zoosphaerium Pocock, 1895 – Madagascar
References edit
- ^ Thomas Wesener & Kai Schütte (2010). "Swarming behaviour and mass occurrences in the world's largest giant pill-millipede species, Zoosphaerium neptunus, on Madagascar and its implication for conservation efforts (Diplopoda: Sphaerotheriida)". Madagascar Conservation & Development. 5 (2): 89–94. doi:10.4314/mcd.v5i2.63137.
- ^ Wesener, Thomas (2014). "A new phylogenetic analysis of the Sphaerotheriida (Diplopoda) with a revision of the Australian giant pill-millipedes". Invertebrate Systematics. 28 (2): 196. doi:10.1071/IS13048.
External links edit
Media related to Arthrosphaeridae at Wikimedia Commons
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