Nematophora

Shelley, Rowland M. & Golovatch, Sergei I., 2011, Atlas of Myriapod Biogeography. I. Indigenous Ordinal and Supra-Ordinal Distributions in the Diplopoda: Perspectives on Taxon Origins and Ages, and a Hypothesis on the Origin and Early Evolution of the Class, Insecta Mundi 2011 (158), pp. 1-134 : 39-40

Superorder Nematophora ( Fig. 35 -36)

Primarily Holarctic, Nematophora also inhabit

the Tropics and South Temperate Zone. They oc-

cupy 14 areas on all six continents and span the

Equator in South America, Africa, and Indonesia,

but are absent from Oceania and nearly so from

oceanic archipelagos in general, except for the

Azores and Madeira, in the Atlantic, and Kodiak

Island, Alaska, USA, in the North Pacific Ocean

( Fig. 35 ). Area sizes vary from large – in the New

World, Europe/Central Asia, and east/southeast-

ern Asia – to the isolated point locality on Kodiak

I. Chordeumatida , the dominant component and Figure 36. Distributions of Nematophora and the Order

Chordeumatida in northwestern continental North along with Polydesmida one of the two most

America.

speciose orders, occur globally, alone comprise 11

of the 17 nematophoran regions including the five

southernmost, in Chile, Madagascar, Australia, and New Zealand, and occupy half or more of the three largest by themselves, particularly northern sectors. By themselves, the primarily Holarctic Callipodida and the pantropical Stemmiulida comprise only one area each, although the latter order is the sole nematophoran in the South American and Antillean parts of the primarily North American area.

Most of the northern border is uncertain, but the large New World area, comprising all three orders, extends continuously from Hudson Bay, Ontario, and the “Haines Triangle,” BC (Fig. 36), through the entire continental US, all of Mexico and Central America, and all Caribbean Islands (except the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos) to central Peru and south of the Amazon River in Brazil; additionally, a small, detached area with an unknown southern border exists in southcentral Chile. Nematophora doubtlessly occur farther south in Peru and Brazil, but no records are available; they also occupy Madagascar, both major islands of New Zealand, angle completely across sub-Saharan Africa in a broad, angled swath, and occupy a narrow, curvilinear region in Siberia along the Chinese/Mongolian borders. Smaller areas exist in southern India / Sri Lanka, Nepal, Iran, European Russia, and the east/southeast and southwestern coasts of Australia. The Asian part of the Australasian area, also comprising all three components, extends from Kamchatka, Sakhalin, and the Maritime Prov., Russia, to southern Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, encompassing the Kurile Islands, the Ryukyus and “mainland” Japan, Taiwan, and the Philippines; it expands westward through central China to the longitude of central Myanmar. The European/Central Asian area, comprising Callipodida and Chordeumatida , stretches eastward from the Azores through Europe and part of northern Africa to southern Kazakhstan and northern Pakistan, narrowing latitudinally at the Black and Caspian seas. It dips southward in Israel / West Bank, but connection with the detached Zagros Mts., Iran, cannot now be demonstrated.

The nematophoran orders – Callipodida , Chordeumatida , and Stemmiulida ( Fig. 37 , 41 , 45 ) – exhibit less commonality and geographical congruence than do those of Juliformia , perhaps indicating a less sound cladistic foundation. All inhabit areas in the Western Hemisphere of greatly different sizes that cover different regions. Callipodida and Chordeumatida occupy sizeable parts of Europe and smaller areas; conversely, Stemmiulida , the lone African representatives, are absent from this continent. Chordeumatida exhibit Gondwanan elements in Chile, Madagascar, peninsular India / Sri Lanka, and

Australia / New Zealand; Stemmiulida are sympatric in India / Sri Lanka, partly congruent in Indochina, and absent from the others. Chordeumatida are widespread in east/southeastern Asia and the East Indies, whereas Stemmiulida are known only from Vietnam, the Island of New Guinea, and Halmahera. The discovery by SIG of Stemmiulida in northern Vietnam (Appendix), expanding the recent discovery in southern Vietnam ( Mauriès et al. 2010), suggests that their southeast Asian occurrences may be greater than presently realized. Chordeumatida and Stemmiulida may be more congruent here than our maps show.

Figures

Figure 37. Known (solid lines) and projected (dashed line) distributions of the Order Callipodida. The question mark denotes the record from Budapest, Hungary, whose origin is uncertain.

Figure 41. Known (solid lines) and projected (dashed lines) distributions of the Order Chordeumatida, parameters as in Fig. 1; a few records are available from the dotted area in North America. The upper arrow denotes the Tingupidae record from Kodiak Island, Alaska, USA, and the lower one indicates the known and projected ranges of Eudigonidae in Chile.

Figure 34-35. Distributions. 34) Known (solid lines) and projected (dashed lines) distributions of the Suborder Spirostreptidea, parameters as in Fig. 1. 35) Known (solid lines) and projected (dashed lines) distributions of the Superorder Nematophora, parameters as in Fig. 1; a few records are available from the dotted area in North America. The upper arrow denotes the Chordeumatida (Tingupidae) record from Kodiak Island, Alaska, USA, and the lower one denotes the known and projected distribution of Chordeumatida (Eudigonidae) in Chile.

Figure 45-46. Distributions. 45) Distribution of the Order Stemmiulida. 46) Known (solid lines) and projected (dashed lines) distributions of the Superorder Merocheta and the Order Polydesmida, parameters as in Fig. 1. No records or samples are available from the dotted areas.