Amblyiulus barroisi ( Porat, 1893 )

Vagalinski, Boyan, Golovatch, Sergei, Simaiakis, Stylianos Michail, Enghoff, Henrik & Stoev, Pavel, 2014, Millipedes of Cyprus (Myriapoda: Diplopoda), Zootaxa 3835 (4), pp. 528-548 : 533

6. Amblyiulus barroisi ( Porat, 1893)

Pachyiulus cyprius Brölemann, 1896 , syn. n.

Records from Cyprus. Larnaka [as A. cyprius ] ( Verhoeff, 1902).

New material. NHMG: 1 ♂, Moutti tou Alexikou, calcareous sandstones, gravel and stones, sparse vegetation of small, thorny bushes, loc. 53, 24.IV.1974, HWW leg., BV det.; NHMW: 2 ♂, 1 F: TH 191, CY 95-1: near Paphos, Coral Bay, 12.2.1995, BT & KT. leg., BV det.— 1 ♂, CY 81/5: Cape Greco, 18.II.1981, KT leg., BV det.— 1 ♂, CY 81/2: Limassol, Curium, 20–100 m, 15.II.1981, KT leg., BV det.

Distribution. Israel ( Silvestri, 1895), Syria (Porat, 1896; Attems, 1926), Cyprus ( Verhoeff, 1902; present study).

Taxonomic remarks. Porat (1893) presented a quite detailed description of A. barroisi , which was also accompanied by several clear drawings, based on material from present-day Israel. Brölemann (1896) no less nicely described and illustrated his A. cyprius ( Brölemann, 1896) from Cyprus, noting it was common on the island and very strongly resembled A. barroisi . The sole difference was claimed to lie in the shape of the promere tip. The difference, however, is fictitious, since it only reflects the promere being much more accurately depicted in A. cyprius , hence the new synonymy. A side-by-side comparison between individuals collected in Cyprus and Israel shows no difference in any morphological detail, including the relatively large body size and very conspicuous colour pattern observed in no other congener: bright orange-yellowish head and first rings, contrasting with a darkgreenish-grey remaining body.