The millipede family Polyxenidae (Diplopoda, Polyxenida) in the faunas of the Crimean Peninsula and Caucasus, with notes on other European Polyxenidae

Abstract

The Polyxenidae in the fauna of the Crimeo-Caucasian region is represented by four species: Polyxenus lagurus (Linnaeus, 1758) (= P. lagurus caucasicus Lignau, 1924, syn. n.), Propolyxenus argentifer (Verhoeff, 1921) comb. n. (= P. trivittatus Verhoeff, 1941, = P. sokolowi Lignau, 1924, both syn. n.), a new species, Polyxenus lankaranensis sp. n., and an undescribed Polyxenus sp. The distributions of all these species in the region concerned are mapped, based on old and new records. A molecular phylogeny based on COI sequences is used to study the relationship within and among the genera Polyxenus and Propolyxenus from Western Europe to the southern Caucasus. The results highlight the presence of a number of undescribed species of Polyxenus across this region.

An Annotated Checklist of the Millipedes (Myriapoda: Diplopoda) from the Stavropol Territory, Northern Caucasus, Russia

“…Distribution. Georgia [19], Russia: Caucasus, Azerbaijan, Iran, Turkey (possibly), Southern Europe (possibly) [17]. Occurrence in the Stavropol Territory.…”

“…Occurrence in the Stavropol Territory. Shpakovskiy District, Kirovskiy District, Predgornyi District [17]. Notes.…”

“…The species was originally described based on material from various geographic regions (Southern Europe and the Caucasus) [20]. According to the latest revision, populations from Southern Europe may be cryptic species, but the molecular analysis is required to verify this [17]. The species Polyxenus trivittatus Verhoeff, 1941 andP.…”

“…The first and preliminary review was published rather recently [11], altogether with 19 diplopod species recorded. Since then, several review papers have appeared dealing with various groups of the Caucasian millipedes [12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. This allows for the list of Diplopoda species of the Stavropol Territory to be considerably supplemented, bringing it both in line with the current nomenclature and to a total of 27 species.…”

The millipede tribe Brachyiulini in the Caucasus (Diplopoda, Julida, Julidae)

“…Two review papers summarising our knowledge of the millipede fauna of the Caucasus, and both discussing biogeographic issues as well, one by Muralewicz (1911) and the other by Lohmander (1936), are vastly outdated and have since been rectified, modernised, and heavily updated. Thus, the Caucasian Polyxenida (Short 2015;Short et al 2020), Glomerida (Golovatch 1989a(Golovatch , b, 1990a(Golovatch , 1999Turbanov 2017, 2018), Colobognatha (Golovatch et al 2015), Polydesmida (Evsyukov et al 2016;Golovatch et al 2016), and Chordeumatida (Antić and Makarov 2016;Antić et al 2018), as well as the families Blaniulidae (Enghoff 1984(Enghoff , 1990Golovatch and Enghoff 1990) and Nemasomatidae , both in Julida, have been thoroughly revised. As regards the Julidae, the only other family of Julida remaining in the Caucasus, it is definitely one of the most diverse, common, and widespread across the region.…”