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Classification of Polydesmida
Millipedes make up the class Diplopoda within the phylum Arthropoda. 'Diplopoda' comes from the Greek diploos, 'doubled', and podos, 'foot'. The name refers to the fact that most millipede body rings, viewed from the side, have two feet.
Diplopoda is divided into 16 orders, one of which is Polydesmida. For an overview of the classification into orders, see the excellent article on millipedes in Wikipedia.
Polydesmida were grouped into 30 families in a widely accepted scheme published by Rowland Shelley in 2003. Two of those families have since been lumped into one by Sergei Golovatch and co-workers (2009), leaving 29 in total.
For each of the families, I give below an estimate of number of described species, some idea of the family's natural distribution, and my information sources. Warning: this list is only a guide! As Shelley (2007, p. 347) writes:
Many polydesmidan families are so globally widespread, internally diverse, and extremely speciose that full revisions are prohibitive, and many more species and genera remain to be discovered in most large families so that any such treatment will quickly become obsolete.
Order POLYDESMIDA Pocock, 1887
Suborder Dalodesmidea Hoffman, 1980
Family Dalodesmidae Cook, 1896
ca 340 species, Australia, Madagascar, New Caledonia, New Zealand, southern Africa, southern South America (Hamer and Mesibov, online catalog, in preparation)
Family Vaalogonopodidae Verhoeff, 1940
7 species, southern Africa (Hamer and Mesibov, online catalog, in preparation)
Family not certain (dalodesmidean species not yet assigned to a family)
13 species, Australia (Hamer and Mesibov, online catalog, in preparation)
Suborder Leptodesmidea Brölemann, 1916
Superfamily Chelodesmidea Cook, 1895
Family Chelodesmidae Cook, 1895
400+ species; Africa, Central and South America (Hoffman 1980, 1982)
Superfamily Platyrhachoidea Pocock, 1895
Family Aphelidesmidae Brölemann, 1916
ca 30 species, Central America, Caribbean. northern South America (Hoffman 1999)
Family Platyrhachidae Pocock, 1895
250+ species, Indo-Australian Region and North, Central and South America (Hoffman 1982)
Superfamily Rhachodesmoidea Carl, 1903
Family Rhachodesmidae Carl, 1903
66 species, Central America (Hoffman 1999)
Family Tridontomidae Loomis and Hoffman, 1962
3 species, Guatemala (Hoffman 1999)
Superfamily Sphaeriodesmoidea Humbert and de Saussure, 1869
Family Campodesmidae Cook,1896
ca 8 species, Sierra Leone to Nigeria (Hoffman 1982)
Family Holistophallidae Silvestri, 1909
11 species, Central America (Hoffman 1999)
Family Sphaeriodesmidae Humbert and de Saussure, 1869
ca 90 species, SE USA to Panama, Greater Antilles (Hoffman 1999)
Superfamily Xystodesmoidea Cook, 1895
Family Eurymerodesmidae Causey, 1951
25 species, central and SE USA (Shelley 1990)
Family Euryuridae Pocock, 1909
11 species, eastern USA (Hoffman 1999)
Family Gomphodesmidae Cook, 1896
146 species, tropical and southern Africa (Hoffman 2005)
Family Oxydesmidae Cook, 1895
152 species, Africa and Lebanon (Hoffman 1990)
Family Xystodesmidae Cook, 1895
300+ species, widepread in N Hemisphere (Marek and Bond 2006, Hoffman 1982)
Suborder Polydesmidea Pocock, 1887
Infraorder Oniscodesmoides Simonsen, 1990
Superfamily Oniscodesmoidea de Saussure, 1860
Family Dorsoporidae Loomis, 1958
1 species, Panama (Hoffman 1999)
Family Oniscodesmidae de Saussure, 1860
ca 27 species, Central and South America (Hoffman 1980, 1982)
Superfamily Pyrgodesmoidea Silvestri, 1896
Family Ammodesmidae Cook, 1896
ca 5 species, Africa (VandenSpiegel and Golovatch 2003)
Family Cyrtodesmidae Cook, 1896
ca 30 species, Costa Rica to Trinidad and Peru (Hoffman 1982)
Family Pyrgodesmidae Silvestri, 1896
ca 250 species, Central and South America, Africa, South and SE Asia, East Indies, Oceania (Hoffman 1980, 1982)
Infraorder Polydesmoides Pocock, 1887
Superfamily Haplodesmoidea Cook, 1895
Family Haplodesmidae Cook, 1895
ca 35 species, East Asia, Australia (Golovatch et al. 2009a, 2009b, 2010)
Superfamily Opisotretoidea Hoffman, 1980
Family Opisotretidae Hoffman, 1980
ca 8 species, SE Asia and New Guinea (Hoffman 1980, 1982)
Superfamily Polydesmoidea Leach, 1815
Family Cryptodesmidae Karsch, 1880
100+ species, E and SE Asia to New Guinea, Central and South America, W Africa, Sri Lanka (Hoffman 1980)
Family Polydesmidae Leach, 1815
160-200 species, N Hemisphere (Hoffman 1982)
Superfamily Trichpolydesmoidea Verhoeff, 1910
Family Fuhrmannodesmidae Brölemann, 1916
ca 80 species, Central and South America, West Indies, Africa, South Asia (Hoffman 1980, 1982)
Family Macrosternodesmidae Brölemann, 1916
9 species, Europe and eastern USA (Hoffman 1980)
Family Nearctodesmidae Chamberlin and Hoffman, 1950
20+ species, mainly western USA (Hoffman 1980)
Family Trichopolydesmidae Verhoeff, 1910
6 species, Europe (Hoffman 1982)
Suborder Strongylosomatidea Brölemann, 1916
Family Paradoxosomatidae Daday, 1899
700+ species, all continents except North America and Antarctica (Hoffman 1982)
Golovatch, S.I., Geoffroy, J.-J., Mauriès, J.-P. and Vanden Spiegel, D. 2009a. Review of the millipede family Haplodesmidae Cook, 1895, with descriptions of some new or poorly-known species (Diplopoda, Polydesmida). ZooKeys 7: 1-53.
Golovatch, S.I., Geoffroy, J.-J., Mauriès, J.-P. and Vanden Spiegel, D. 2009b. Review of the millipede genus Eutrichodesmus Silvestri, 1910 (Diplopoda, Polydesmida, Haplodesmidae), with descriptions of new species. ZooKeys 12: 1-46.
Golovatch, S.I., Mikhaljova, E.V., Korsós, Z. and Chang, H.W. 2010. The millipede family Haplodesmidae (Diplopoda, Polydesmida) recorded in Taiwan for the first time, with the description of a new species. Tropical Natural History 10(1): 27-36.
Hoffman, R.L. 1980. Classification of the Diplopoda. Geneva: Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle, Genève; 237 pp.
Hoffman, R.L. 1982. Diplopoda. Pp. 689-724 in Parker, S.B. (ed), Synopsis and classification of living organisms. Vol. 2. New York, McGraw-Hill.
Hoffman, R.L. 1990. Das Tierreich. 107. Myriapoda 5. Polydesmida 4. Family Oxydesmidae. Berlin and New York: W. DeGruyter and Co.; 512 pp.
Hoffman, R.L. 1999. Checklist of the millipeds of North and Middle America. Virginia Museum of Natural History Special Publication 8: 1-584.
Hoffman, R.L. 2005. Monograph of the Gomphodesmidae, a family of African polydesmoid millipeds. Wien: Verlag des Naturhistorischen Museums Wien; 537 pp.
Marek, P.E. and Bond, J.E. 2006. Phylogenetic systematics of the colorful, cyanide-producing millipedes of Appalachia (Polydesmida, Xystodesmidae, Apheloriiini) using a total evidence Bayesian approach. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 41: 704-729.
Shelley, R.M. 1990. Revision of the milliped family Eurymerodesmidae (Polydesmida: Chelodesmidea). Memoirs of the American Entomological Society 7: 1-112.
Shelley, R.M. 2003. A revised, annotated, family-level classification of the Diplopoda. Arthropoda Selecta 11(3): 187-207.
Shelley, R.M. 2007. Taxonomy of extant Diplopoda (Millipeds) in the modern era: Perspectives for future advancements and observations on the global diplopod community (Arthropoda: Diplopoda). Zootaxa 1668: 343–362.
VandenSpiegel, D. and Golovatch, S.I. 2003. Review of the East African millipede genus Elassystrema Hoffman & Howell, 1981 (Diplopoda: Polydesmida: Ammodesmidae), with descriptions of three new species. Arthropoda Selecta 12 (3-4): 183-191.
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