Spirobolidea, Cook, 1895

Shelley, Rowland M. & Floyd, Samuel D., 2014, Expanded concept of the milliped family Spirobolidae Diplopoda: Spirobolida: Spirobolidea): Proposals of Aztecolini n. tribe and Floridobolinae / ini and Tylobolini n. stats.; (re) descriptions of Floridobolus and F. penneri, both Causey, 1957, and F. orini n. sp.; hypotheses on origins and affinities, Insecta Mundi 2014 (357), pp. 1-50 : 40

Concordance between Spirobolidea and Leptodesmidea (Polydesmida)

We would be remisss not to digress to address this topic. The sudden availability of vacant niches in “proto-Mexico” after Euramerica collided with Gondwana I had no detectable impact on invading Glomeridesmida, Siphonophorida , Spirostreptidea, and Stemmiulida , which remained stable at familial levels. The first two have not been investigated systematically, and only two such studies exist on Stemmiulida ( Mauriès and Golovatch 2006, Mauriès et al. 2010), so detailed reviews may alter this impression. However, the new “proto-Mexican” niches triggered concordant bursts of evolution in Spirobolidea and Leptodesmidea (Polydesmida) that are manifested today by geographically restricted, endemic families. In addition to the six of Spirobolidea , four evolved in Leptodesmidea – Holistophallidae , Rhachodesmidae , Sphaeriodesmidae , and Tridontomidae – possibly also in the “northern Mexican Highlands.” These families have not dispersed as widely as the spirobolideans, for only Sphaeriodesmidae , represented by Desmoninae , have spread into the US – to Missouri, Kentucky, western Virginia, eastcentral Georgia, and northcentral Florida – and an additional sphaeriodesmid of unknown origin inhabits Guadeloupe, Lesser Antilles ( Chamberlin and Hoffman 1958; Loomis 1968a; Mauriès 1980, Hoffman 1980a, 1999; Shelley 2000b ; Shelley and Golovatch 2011; Shelley and Martinez-Torres 2013). The other endemic leptodesmidean families are restricted to Mexico and northern Central America, although like Stemmiulida ( Shelley et al. 2012) and Aztecolini , Rhachodesmidae inhabit Nuevo León and Tamaulipas, the northeasternmost states, and like Allopocockiidae ( Shelley and Hoffman 1995, Hoffman 1999), may traverse the Rio Grande into adjoining southern Texas. Represented by Chondrodesmini, the leptodesmidean family Chelodesmidae , dominant in South America but also occupying parts of Africa and Spain, inhabits the Yucatan peninsula ( Loomis 1968a, Hoffman 1999, Bueno Villegas et al. 2004) but has not dispersed into the US; the tribal citation from Veracruz (state) ( Hoffman 1999) seems erroneous as we cannot find a published record. In the polydesmidan suborder Polydesmidea , indigenous species of Myrmecodesmus (Pyrgodesmidae) have spread northward to northcentral Alabama and eastward along the Gulf Coast to the Apalachicola River ( Shelley 2004 ), which also constitutes the western border of the primary area of Chicobolus ( Fig. 13 , AR, 28).

Figures

Figure 13. Distributions of Floridobolini and Floridobolus. Star, type locality of F. orini. Black line, known and projected distributions of F. penneri on the Lake Wales Ridge. AR, course of the Apalachicola River in Florida. H, Highlands Co. M, Marion Co. P, Polk Co.