Craspedosoma raulinsii Leach, 1814

Kime, Richard Desmond & Enghoff, Henrik, 2021, Atlas of European millipedes 3: Order Chordeumatida (Class Diplopoda), European Journal of Taxonomy 769, pp. 1-244 : 71-72

210. Craspedosoma raulinsii Leach, 1814

Fig. 1C

Craspedosoma raulinsii Leach, 1814 .

Craspedosoma rawlinsii Leach, 1815 .

Craspedosoma simile Verhoeff, 1891 .

Craspedosoma transsilvanicum Verhoeff, 1897 .

Craspedosoma alemannicum Verhoeff, 1910 .

Craspedosoma suevicum Verhoeff, 1910 .

Craspedosoma wehranum Verhoeff, 1910 .

Craspedosoma simile vomrathi Verhoeff, 1910 .

Craspedosoma simile germanicum Verhoeff, 1910 .

Craspedosoma vomrathi auct.

Craspedosoma germanicum auct.

Distribution

AT, BA, BG, BE, BY, CH, CZ, DE, DK-DEN, FI, FR-COR?, FR-FRA, GB-GRB, GB-NI, HR, HU, IE, IT-ITA, LT, LU, LV, NL, NO-NOR, PL, RO, RU-KGD, RU-RUC, SB, SE, SI, SK. Introduced in North America.

Habitat

Mostly in woodland, e.g., Alnus swamps, prefers high humidity, often on sandy soils; sometimes in coniferous forests and more open habitats. A pioneer species in abandoned lignite (brown coal) mining areas ( Hauser & Voigtländer 2019). Its pioneering properties are also reflected in the isolated occurrences in Russia and North-Central Sweden. Up to 1540 m a.s.l. in Switzerland.

Remarks

This is the only species of Chordeumatida which has been introduced to another continent. See McAlpine & Shear (2018) for a discussion of the occurrence in North America and the spelling of the species epithet (also see Dolejš & Kocourek 2019 on the spelling issue).

Craspedosoma raulinsii is highly variable, and a very large number of subspecies, varieties and subvarieties have been described. The taxa alemannicum Verhoeff, 1910 , germanicum Verhoeff, 1910 , vomrathi Verhoeff, 1910 , and transsilvanicum have all been regarded as separate species by some authors, e.g., in the well-known handbook by Schubart (1934). Spelda (1991) and Hauser (2004a) analysed the extremely complex taxonomy of this group of taxa. As a result, Hauser (2004a) recognized a number of subspecies, regarded germanicum as a group of morphologically indistinguishable hybrids between various other subspecies, and provided extensive lists of synonyms. See also under C. blaniulides .

This species seems recently to have expanded its range in northeastern Europe. It had not been recorded from Estonia until 2010, but is now widespread in the country ( Sammet et al. 2018). It is also a newcomer in the fauna of Latvia where it is now common in a variety of habitats ( Spuņģis 2010). The first record from Russia outside the Kaliningrad region was from a park in Moscow and is probably due to a recent introduction ( Golovatch & Matyukhin 2011).

Figures

Fig. 1. A selection of European species of Chordeumatida C.L. Koch, 1847, family Craspedosomatidae Gray, 1843. A. Nanogona polydesmoides (Leach, 1814). B. Rhymogona verhoeffi (Bigler, 1913). C. Craspedosoma raulinsii Leach, 1814, in copula. D. Atractosoma meridionale Fanzago, 1876. E. Bergamosoma canestrinii (Fedrizzi, 1878), feeding on excrements of fox (Vulpes vulpes (Linnaeus, 1758)). Photo credits: Paul Richards, www.flickr.com/invertimages (A, C), Jörg Spelda (B, D), José Domingo Gilgado (E).