Pill Millipedes of Northern Italy

Description

Of the Holarctic pill millipede order Glomerida, the European genus Glomeris, commonly encountered by European field zoologists, is by far the most species-rich. The species of Glomeris are unevenly distributed across Europe, with only a single species present in northern Germany, Scandinavia and Great Britain, but a hotspot of diversity present in Italy, where 34 species, of them 20 country-endemics, were recorded. However, many of these species are only known from their first description, often dating back more than 100 years, and were only recorded from a single locality. Furthermore, many of these species seem, according to their first description, to be similar to widespread species of variable colouration, such as G. undulata Koch, 1844 or G. connexa Koch, 1847. To find out whether the species richness of the pill millipedes in Italy is the result of taxonomic inflation combined with a total lack of revisions, or whether it is the result of a more natural process was the aim of this study.

Location