Arthrosphaeridae
Family of millipedes
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Arthrosphaeridae is a family of giant pill millipedes that are found in Madagascar, the Western Ghats of India, and Sri Lanka. The largest pill-millipede in the world, Zoosphaerium neptunus (Butler 1872) belongs to this family and is known to swarm at certain times of the year.[1]
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| Arthrosphaeridae | |
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Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum: | Myriapoda |
| Class: | Diplopoda |
| Order: | Sphaerotheriida |
| Family: | Arthrosphaeridae Jeekel, 1974 |
Description
The first segment of the anterior telopods have a stridulatory organ known as a "harp" and this has one to ten ribs. The anal plate on the female is enlarged and has 1-12 ribs while the male anal shield has no special sclerotized notch as seen in other families. The segments of the antenna are oval or cylindrical.[2]
Taxonomy
Within the family Arthrosphaeridae there are four genus formally described:
- Arthrosphaera Pocock, 1895 – India, Sri Lanka
- Microsphaerotherium Wesener & van den Spiegel, 2007 – Madagascar
- Sphaeromimus de Saussure & Zehntner, 1902 – Southeast Madagascar
- Zoosphaerium Pocock, 1895 – Madagascar
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