Centipedes and Millipeds (Arthropoda: Diplopoda, Chilopoda
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University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Center for Systematic Entomology, Gainesville, Insecta Mundi Florida 4-6-2012 Centipedes and Millipeds (Arthropoda: Diplopoda, Chilopoda) from Saba Island, Lesser Antilles, and a Consolidation of Major References on the Myriapod Fauna of “Lesser” Caribbean Islands Rowland M. Shelley North Carolina State Museum of Natural Sciences, [email protected] Derek S. Sikes University of Alaska Museum, Fairbanks, AK, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/insectamundi Part of the Entomology Commons Shelley, Rowland M. and Sikes, Derek S., "Centipedes and Millipeds (Arthropoda: Diplopoda, Chilopoda) from Saba Island, Lesser Antilles, and a Consolidation of Major References on the Myriapod Fauna of “Lesser” Caribbean Islands" (2012). Insecta Mundi. 742. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/insectamundi/742 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Center for Systematic Entomology, Gainesville, Florida at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Insecta Mundi by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. INSECTA A Journal of World Insect Systematics MUNDI 0221 Centipedes and Millipeds (Arthropoda: Diplopoda, Chilopoda) from Saba Island, Lesser Antilles, and a Consolidation of Major References on the Myriapod Fauna of “Lesser” Caribbean Islands Rowland M. Shelley Research Laboratory North Carolina State Museum of Natural Sciences MSC #1626 Raleigh, NC 27699-1626, USA [email protected] Derek S. Sikes University of Alaska Museum 907 Yukon Dr. Fairbanks, AK 99755-6960, USA [email protected] Date of Issue: April 6, 2012 CENTER FOR SYSTEMATIC ENTOMOLOGY, INC., Gainesville, FL Rowland M. Shelley and Derek S. Sikes Centipedes and Millipeds (Arthropoda: Diplopoda, Chilopoda) from Saba Island, Lesser Antilles, and a Consolidation of Major References on the Myriapod Fauna of “Lesser” Caribbean Islands Insecta Mundi 0221: 1–9 Published in 2012 by Center for Systematic Entomology, Inc. P. O. Box 141874 Gainesville, FL 32614-1874 USA http://www.centerforsystematicentomology.org/ Insecta Mundi is a journal primarily devoted to insect systematics, but articles can be published on any non-marine arthropod. Topics considered for publication include systematics, taxonomy, nomenclature, checklists, faunal works, and natural history. Insecta Mundi will not consider works in the applied sciences (i.e. medical entomology, pest control research, etc.), and no longer publishes book reviews or editorials. In- secta Mundi publishes original research or discoveries in an inexpensive and timely manner, distributing them free via open access on the internet on the date of publication. 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Florida Center for Library Automation: http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/insectamundi University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Digital Commons: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/insectamundi/ Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main: http://edocs.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/volltexte/2010/14363/ Author instructions available on the Insecta Mundi page at: http://www.centerforsystematicentomology.org/insectamundi/ Copyright held by the author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Com- mons, Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited. http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nc/3.0/ 0221: 1-9 2012 Centipedes and Millipeds (Arthropoda: Diplopoda, Chilopoda) from Saba Island, Lesser Antilles, and a Consolidation of Major References on the Myriapod Fauna of “Lesser” Caribbean Islands Rowland M. Shelley Research Laboratory North Carolina State Museum of Natural Sciences MSC #1626 Raleigh, NC 27699-1626, USA [email protected] Derek S. Sikes University of Alaska Museum 907 Yukon Dr. Fairbanks, AK 99755-6960, USA [email protected] Abstract. The chilopod, Cryptops hortensis (Donovan, 1810) (Scolopendromorpha: Cryptopidae), and the diplopods, Pseudospirobolellus avernus (Butler, 1876) (Spirobolida: Pseudospirobolellidae) and Oxidus gracilis (C. L. Koch, 1847) (Polydesmida: Paradoxosomatidae), are newly recorded from Saba Island, Lesser Antilles, which also harbors one additional scolopendromorph and four more chilognath millipeds. Except for the plausibly native scolopendrid centipede, Scolopendra alternans Leach, 1813, all are human introductions. Concentrated sampling is needed in the cloud/elfin forest atop Mt. Scenery, where indigenous millipeds may reside, and with extraction techniques throughout the island, to potentially document the diplopod subclass Penicillata. Nine small Caribbean islands in addition to Saba have been incorrectly reported as lacking diplopod records because publications citing them were overlooked by past authors. Works documenting myriapods from small Caribbean islands are consolidated. Keywords. Faunistics, new records, introduced species, non-native, tropics Introduction In addition to the actual classification, Hoffman (1980) provided voluminous commentaries on the orders, the status of diplopodology at the time, and the history of diplopod taxonomy, in which he cited the “extensive polyglot literature” that confronts anyone conducting research on the organisms. When delving into the morass of faunal and systematic references, it is nearly impossible to find all that are relevant to virtually any taxon or geographic region. Shelley and Golovatch (2011, Table 1), for example, listed 36 Caribbean islands or island groups for which neither published milliped records nor samples were known, but despite substantial research, they missed the works of Jeekel (1999, 2000, 2009) and incorrectly listed 10 “lesser” islands that he addressed: Aruba, Bonaire, Culebra, Curaçao. Los Testigos, Mona, Montserrat, Saba, St. Barthélemy, and St. Martin/Sint Maarten. This contribution therefore comprises two parts: (1) documentations of Saban myriapods with new and published localities; and (2) a consolidated listing, as complete as possible, of principal works addressing these arthropods on small Caribbean islands, so future workers can avoid similar errors in this region of the world. (1) The Saban Fauna Slowik and Sikes (2011) addressed Saban environments, and readers are referred there for details of this minute island (17°38’N, 63°14’W, 13 km2), the smallest “special municipality” in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. While sampling spiders, they collected three milliped species, two new to the island, and one new centipede that we report along with Jeekel’s published records. In contrast to the diverse 1 2 • INSECTA MUNDI 0221, April 2012 SHELLEY AND SIKES aranean fauna, with 76 native and endemic species reported to date (Slowik and Sikes 2011), most Saban myriapods are widespread “tramp” species that represent human introductions. As there is no evidence that Saba was once connected to the northern Antillean arc (Westermann 1957), a predominantly al- lochthonous myriapod fauna is expected, but the cloud/elfin forest atop Mt Scenery, a dormant volcano that, at 877m (2,877ft) elevation, is the highest point in the Netherlands, provides suitable habitat for indigenous, if not endemic, forms. Sampling focusing on this lush environment is in order. The ensuing list of diplopods, all in the subclass Chilognatha, infraclass Helminthomorpha, conforms to the arrangement of Shelley (2003a). Representatives of the infraclass Pentazonia, order Glomeri- desmida, inhabit large and small Caribbean islands, but because of its geological history (Westermann 1957, Westermann and Kiel 1961), Saba seems unlikely to harbor the order unless representatives have rafted from islands that derived from Gondwanan “proto–South America” in the Cretaceous/Pa- leocene (Mesozoic/Cenozoic), ~66 million years ago (Shelley and Golovatch 2011).