Siphonophorida

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 : 26-27

Order Siphonophorida ( Fig. 22 )

We recognize nine areas of Siphonophorida , three in Asia and Australia / New Zealand / Papua New Guinea /Oceania, two in the New World, and one each in Africa and Indian Ocean Islands ( Fig. 22 ).

The New World distribution, comprising a large area and a point locality to the north in California, was mapped by Shelley (1996c); the former traverses the Equator and Tropic of Cancer and extends southward to the Tropic of Capricorn. The detached northern site, of Illacme plenipes Cook and Loomis, 1928 (Siphonorhinidae) , the world’s “leggiest” animal, is also the northernmost for the order and the only familial locality in the Western Hemisphere. Known only from the area of the type locality ( Cook and Loomis 1928; Chamberlin and Hoffman 1958; Shelley 1996c, d; Hoffman 1999), it was recently rediscovered by Marek and Bond (2006). The large area encompasses all Greater and Lesser Antilles (excluding the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos), Mexico, and Central America, and terminates at a southeastward slanted border that passes through central Peru and Bolivia but excludes Paraguay and the three southernmost Brazilian states: Paraná, Santa Catarina , and Rio Grande do Sul.

The lone African occurrence, of Siphonorhinidae , is restricted to KwaZulu Natal and Mpumalanga provs., Republic of South Africa; it was mapped by Shelley and Hoffman (2004). The order also occurs in the Seychelles ( Mauriès 1980b, Jeekel 2001b).

Records are sporadic, but we recognize six areas in Australasia that include western/southern Oceania. Sri Lanka, on the Indian Subcontinent, is one, but unlike Sphaerotheriida , Spirobolida , Chordeumatida , and Stemmiulida (Fig. 13, 28, 41, 46), no records exist from peninsular India itself. We unite isolated records from northern Pakistan, the northernmost Asian occurrence ( Golovatch 1991, Jeekel 2001b), northern India, the Darjeeling District in eastern India, and Assam (Appendix) into a narrow continuous strip through the Himalayas and adjacent southern lowlands. While varying in lengths, strip-like occurrences here, contiguous or detached from southeast Asian areas, are shown by Glomerida , Sphaerotheriida , Julida , and Chordeumatida ( Fig. 9 , 13, 26, 41), and the point localities here in other colobognaths ( Platydesmida , Polyzoniida , Siphonocryptida ) ( Fig. 17 , 20 , 23 ), constitute extreme manisfestations of this phenomenon. Because of these patterns, we project siphonophoridan occurrence eastward into northern Myanmar. The third Asian area encompasses all of the Malay and most of the Indochina peninsulas, spreads eastward around the Philippines to the Republic of Palau ( Takakuwa 1942), and then swings southward around Indonesia as far east as Halmahera and Flores. Although we could not find records, we project Siphonophorida for Sulawesi and Borneo as the order occurs on proximate islands in all directions and extends eastward to Lydekker’s Line. To the southeast, we unite the eastern arm of the Island of New Guinea (Port Moresby region, Papua New Guinea), eastern Queensland, the North Island of New Zealand, New Caledonia and the Loyalty Islands, Fiji, the Solomon Islands, and Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia ( Takakuwa 1942), into one area. Black (1997) recorded the order and nominate family from Northern Territory, Australia, in general, and Hoffman (1980a) and Mesibov (2009:90) cited the former from New South Wales. The New Zealand sites are near Wellington and well to the south on Auckland Island, the southernmost for Siphonophorida as a whole. Johns (1964) reported a juvenile Siphonophora from Auckland I. without comment, while simultaneously reporting many specimens of Schedotrigona n. sp. ( Chordeumatida ) from Campbell I. that he strongly suspected were introduced from New Zealand proper. Lacking information to the contrary, we regard the lone siphonophoridan as indigenous, include Auckland I. here ( Fig. 22 ), but exclude Campbell I. on the Chordeumatida map ( Fig. 41 ). The Australian and southeast Asian areas conceivably join, but without records from the gap, we leave them separate. Jeekel (2001b) summarized ordinal occurrences in Asia, and the only subsequent work is on Vietnam ( Enghoff et al. 2004). Enghoff (2005) did not record Siphonophorida from Thailand, but we project them for the east and south. Siphonophorida occur in peninsular Myanmar, and occurrence to the north is plausible. Without providing localities and provinces, D. Wang and Mauriès (1996) cited Siphonophorida from China based on an unpublished record of the first author, but we know of no published Chinese records. Extrapolating southeast Asian localities suggests occurrence in southernmost coastal China, Hainan Island, and southern Guangxi and Guangdong provs.

Figures

Figure 17. Distribution of the Order Platydesmida.

Figure 22. Distribution of the Order Siphonophorida; the dot in North America/USA (California) signifies the type and only known locality of Illacme plenipes Cook and Loomis, 1928 (Siphonorhinidae), the world’s “leggiest” animal (Cook and Loomis 1928; Shelley 1996c, d; Marek and Bond 2006). The question mark represents the generalized record from Northern Territory, Australia (Black 1997), and the arrow denotes the locality of Siphonophoridae on Auckland Island, New Zealand (Johns 1964).

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 7-9. Distributions. 7) Distributions of the Superorder Limacomorpha and the order Glomeridesmida, at present excluding the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. The arrow denotes the new record from Fiji (Appendix). 8) Distribution of the Superorder Oniscomorpha. Star, site of the non-spinose Carboniferous fossil from Mazon Creek, Illinois, USA. 9) Distribution of the Order Glomerida, parameters as in Fig. 1, 6.

Figure 19-20. Distributions. 19) Distribution of Platydesmida in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. 20) Known (solid lines) and projected (dashed lines) distribution of the Order Polyzoniida, parameters as in Fig. 15.

Figure 23-25. Distributions. 23) Distribution of the “minor” orders. Star/Circled Areas, Siphonocryptida (Colobognatha); Dots, Siphoniulida (Helminthomorpha incertae sedis). 24) Known (solid lines) and projected (dashed lines) distributions of the Subterclass Eugnatha showing the locations of significant fossils. The arrow points to the Kodiak Island, Alaska, USA, record of Chordeumatida (Tingupidae). Inverted triangle, approximate location of Gobiulus sabulosus Dzik, 1975, the Cretaceous spirobolidan fossil from Mongolia; Asterisk, location of Protosilvestria sculpta, the Oligocene cambalidean fossil in Quercy, France (Mauriès 1992). 25) Known (solid lines) and projected (dashed lines) distributions of the Superorder Juliformia showing the locations of significant fossils. Parameters as in Fig. 1 except no records or samples are available from the dotted area in North America, the Great Basin Physiographic Province, western USA. Inverted triangle, approximate location of Gobiulus sabulosus Dzik, 1975, the Cretaceous spirobolidan fossil from Mongolia; Asterisk, location of Protosilvestria sculpta, the Oligocene cambalidean fossil in Quercy, France (Mauriès 1992). The question mark indicates the generalized record of Epinannolenidea from Northern Territory, Australia (Black 1997).