New interesting records of three cavernicolous millipede species from the Crimean Peninsula

A review of the cavernicolous Trichopolydesmidae (Diplopoda, Polydesmida) from the Carpathian-Balkan arch and the Rhodope Mountains, with descriptions of two new genera and three new species

“…All ten genera are characterized by four or more irregular rows of trichoid setae (except for Bacillidesmus with four regular rows), absence of sensilla basiconica on antennomere 5, presence of a distodorsal pit with sensilla basiconica on antennomere 6, as well as gonopods with a relatively transverse basal part of the prefemorite. The genus Caucasodesmus , known from caves in the north Caucasus and the Crimean Peninsula (see Golovatch 1985 , 2011 ; Golovatch and VandenSpiegel 2015 , 2017 ; Turbanov et al 2018 ), also agrees with this combination of characters. The only exception is C. inexpectatus Golovatch, 1985, which has three rows of trichoid setae.…”

New records of millipedes (Diplopoda) from caves in Crimea and the Caucasus

“…Above is a strictly topotypic material. (Golovatch, VandenSpiegel, 2015;Turbanov et al, 2018). This troglobiont species has already been recorded from the Skelskaya Cave .…”

“…Syrioiulus kovali (Golovatch, 2008) Fig REMARKS. Endemic to southwestern Crimea, a troglobiont known only from a number of caves in the Ai-Petri, Baydarsko-Balaklavsky and Bakhchysarai karst massifs (Golovatch, 2008;Golovatch et al, 2017;Turbanov et al, 2018). The Tshernoretshenskaya Cave is a new locality for the species.…”

The millipede genera Amblyiulus Silvestri, 1896 and Syrioiulus Verhoeff, 1914 in the Caucasus, with notes on their distributions (Diplopoda, Julida, Julidae)

“…Given that the Pachyiulini in the faunas of Turkey ( Enghoff 2006 ) and Iran ( Vagalinski 2020 ) are likewise quite poorly known, each amounting to only a handful of species, there can hardly be any doubt that future progress in the study of pachyiulines in the Caucasus region and adjacent countries will reveal numerous novelties. In addition, given the presence in Crimea of a troglobitic species, Syrioiulus kovali (Golovatch, 2008), finding cave species of Pachyiulini in the Caucasus could also be expected ( Golovatch 2008 ; Golovatch et al 2017 ; Turbanov et al 2018 ). The present taxonomy and distributions as outlined above must be clarified and refined through future research, both morphology- and molecular-based.…”