Centipedes and Millipeds (Arthropoda: Diplopoda, Chilopoda) from Saba Island, Lesser Antilles, and a Consolidation of Major References on the Myriapod Fauna of “Lesser” Caribbean Islands

Authors

Rowland M. Shelley, North Carolina State Museum of Natural SciencesFollow
Derek S. Sikes, University of Alaska Museum, Fairbanks, AKFollow

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

4-6-2012

Comments

Insecta Mundi 0221: 1–9

Published in 2012 by Center for Systematic Entomology, Inc. P. O. Box 141874 Gainesville, FL 32614-1874 USA. http://www.centerforsystematicentomology.org/

Copyright held by the author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons, Attribution Non-Commercial License.

Abstract

The chilopod, Cryptops hortensis (Donovan, 1810) (Scolopendromorpha: Cryptopidae), and the diplopods, Pseudospirobolellus avernus (Butler, 1876) (Spirobolida: Pseudospirobolellidae) and Oxidus gracilis (C. L. Koch, 1847) (Polydesmida: Paradoxosomatidae), are newly recorded from Saba Island, Lesser Antilles, which also harbors one additional scolopendromorph and four more chilognath millipeds. Except for the plausibly native scolopendrid centipede, Scolopendra alternans Leach, 1813, all are human introductions. Concentrated sampling is needed in the cloud/elfin forest atop Mt. Scenery, where indigenous millipeds may reside, and with extraction techniques throughout the island, to potentially document the diplopod subclass Penicillata. Nine small Caribbean islands in addition to Saba have been incorrectly reported as lacking diplopod records because publications citing them were overlooked by past authors. Works documenting myriapods from small Caribbean islands are consolidated.