Arthrosphaeridae

Arthrosphaeridae
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Subphylum:	Myriapoda
Class:	Diplopoda
Order:	Sphaerotheriida
Family:	Arthrosphaeridae

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] This also includes the uniquely-named Darth Vader giant millipede.

An introduced population exists on the Usambara Mountains of Tanzania.^[2]

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.^[3]

References[]

^ 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 and Development. 5 (2): 89–94. doi:10.4314/mcd.v5i2.63137.
^ H. Enghoff (1978). "Arthrosphaera cf. brandti (Humbert), a giant pill millipede found in Tanzania, probably introduced from Sri Lanka". Revue de zoologie africaine. 91 (4): 997–999.
^ 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[]

Media related to Arthrosphaeridae at Wikimedia Commons

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[1] 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 and Development. 5 (2): 89–94. doi:10.4314/mcd.v5i2.63137.

[2] H. Enghoff (1978). "Arthrosphaera cf. brandti (Humbert), a giant pill millipede found in Tanzania, probably introduced from Sri Lanka". Revue de zoologie africaine. 91 (4): 997–999.

[Wesener2014-3] 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.

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