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The southern Appalachian millipeds Boraria stricta (Brölemann, 1896) and B. infesta (Chamberlin, 1918) (Diplopoda: Polydesmida: Xystodesmidae) have become established in Westchester Co., New York, and Hartford Co., Connecticut, respectively. Only three individuals are available for the latter, but B. stricta has established a reproducing population in southern New York state. This species is also recorded from Bland Co., Virginia, in the Ridge and Valley Physiographic Province. Boraria profuga (Causey, 1955) comprises two allopatric populations, one in Montgomery Co., Arkansas, and the other in Ouachita Parish, Louisiana. Distributional records and gonopod drawings are presented for these species plus B. deturkiana (Causey, 1942).
The biogeographic significance of Diplopoda is substantiated by 50 maps documenting indigenous occurrences of the 16 orders, the three Spirostreptida s. l. suborders – Cambalidea, Epinannolenidea, Spirostreptidea – and all higher taxa including Diplopoda itself. The class is indigenous to all continents except Antarctica and islands/archipelagos in all temperate and tropical seas and oceans except the Arctic; it ranges from Kodiak Island and the northern Alaskan Panhandle, United States (USA), southern Hudson Bay, Canada, and near or north of the Arctic Circle in Iceland, continental Scandinavia, and Siberia to southern “mainland” Argentina, the southern tips of Africa and Tasmania, and Campbell Island, subantarctic New Zealand. The vast, global distribution is interrupted by sizeable, poorly- or unsampled areas including the Great Basin, USA; the Atacama Desert region of Chile and neighboring countries; southern South American islands; the central Kalahari and Sahara deserts; the Gobi Desert, Mongolia, and all of north-central and western China; from north of the Caspian Sea, Russia, to central Kazakhstan; and the “Outback” of central Australia. Five Arabian countries lack both samples and published records of indigenous diplopods – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and United Arab Emirates – as do Turks and Caicos, in the New World, and Mauritania and possibly Egypt, Africa. New records, including the first for Chilognatha from Botswana and the first specific localities from Northern Territory, Australia, are cited in the Appendix. Increased emphasis on mappings in taxonomic research is warranted along with investigations of insular “species swarms” that constitute a microcosm of the early evolution of the class. The largest “species swarm” in the Diplopoda is Diplopoda itself!
Four milliped species, substantiated by preserved voucher samples, are reported from Prince Edward Island, Canada. All are introduced European species that now occur widely in both Canada and the United States, and the panglobal Asian paradoxosomatid, Oxidus gracilis (C. L. Koch, 1847), is listed as probable. Choneiulus palmatus (Némec, 1895) (Julida: Blaniulidae) is newly recorded from New Brunswick, and four representatives of the Julidae are cited from Nova Scotia. Discovery of Cylindroiulus punctatus (Leach, 1815) (Julidae) in this province constitutes the second record from both Canada and North America, the other being in Newfoundland.
The taxonomically neglected milliped order Glomeridesmida and family Glomeridesmidae (infraclass
Pentazonia, superorder Limacomorpha) inhabit 21, rather than seven, regions of the world, being newly recorded
from Thailand; Cambodia; the Republics of Palau, the Philippines, and Vanuatu; New Britain, Bismarck Archipelago;
the Island of New Guinea (both West Papua [formerly Irian Jaya], Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea);
and Sulawesi and Borneo, Indonesia. Occurrence in Fiji is confirmed with two additional samples, and discovery is
predicted in southern China, Myanmar, and perhaps Madagascar. Coupled with published localities, these records
suggest subcontinuous (super)ordinal and familial ranges extending some 12,480 km (7,800 mi) southeastward from
northwestern Thailand to Fiji. Though infrequently encountered, the taxa may actually be diverse and abundant
within this area, which encompasses all of the Indochina and Malay peninsulas, the Philippines, Palau, the Island
of Borneo and Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon and Santa Cruz Islands, Vanuatu, and Fiji; it excludes
Taiwan, Australia, New Caledonia, and the Loyalty Islands. The paucity of preserved individuals probably results
from their dark pigmentations and minute sizes, adults being <6.5 mm long; Berlese extractions and sieved litter
techniques are recommended over hand collecting. Glomeridesmida are much more continuous, widespread, and
abundant in the “east” than previously believed and clearly do not comprise a minor, insignificant taxon. The first
glomeridesmidan photos are published.