Abstract
A new genus and species of milliped, Microlympia echina, is described from Jefferson County, Washington, USA. The new species cannot be placed in any existing milliped family, due to a unique combination of characters and at least two significant autapomorphies. The new Family Microlympiidae is therefore established, placed in the Superfamily Brannerioidea, and compared with the related families Tingupidae, Niponiosomatidae, and Branneriidae.
References
Chamberlin, R.V. (1910) Diplopoda from the western states. Annals of the Entomological Society of America, 3, 233–262.
Franklin, J.F, & Dyrness, C.T. (1973) Natural vegetation of Oregon and Washington. U.S. Pacific Northwest Forest and Range Experiment Station, General Technical Report. PNW-8. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Forest and Range Experiment Station, Portland, OR, 417 pp.
Hormiga, G. (1994) A revision and cladistic analysis of the spider family Pimoidae (Araneoidea: Araneae). Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology, 549, 1–104.
Henderson, J.A., Peter, D.A., Lesher, R. & Shaw, D.C. (1989) Forested plant associations of the Olympic National Forest. United States Forest Service Publication R6-ECOL-TP001-88.
Loomis, H.F. (1966) Two new families and other North American Diplopoda of the suborder Chordeumidea. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, 79, 221–230.
McKey-Fender, D., Fender, W.M. & Marshall, V.G. (1994) North American earthworms native to Vancouver Island and the Olympic Peninsula. Canadian Journal of Zoology, 72, 1325–1339.
Ovaska, K., Chichester, L., Reise, H., Leonard, W.P. & Baugh, J. (2002) Anatomy of the dromedary jumping-slug, Hemphillia dromedarius Branson, 1972 (Gastropoda: Stylommatophora: Arionidae), with new distributional records. Nautilus, 116, 89–94.
Shear,W.A. (1972) Studies in the milliped order Chordeumida (Diplopoda): a revision of the family Cleidogonidae and reclassification of the order Chordeumida in the NewWorld. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 144, 151–352.
Shear, W.A. (1981) The milliped family Tingupidae (Diplopoda, Chordeumatida, Brannerioidea). American Museum Novitates, 2715, 1–20.
Shear, W.A. (1988) Systematic position of the milliped family Niponiosomatidae (Diplopoda, Chordeumatida, Brannerioidea). Myriapodologica, 2, 37–43.
Shear, W.A. (1990) On the central and east Asian milliped family Diplomaragnidae (Diplopoda, Chordeumatida, Diplomaragnoidea). American Museum Novitates, 2977, 1–40.
Shear, W.A. (2000) On the milliped family Heterochordeumatidae, with comments on the higher classification of the order Chordeumatida (Diplopoda). Invertebrate Taxonomy 14, 363–376.
Shear,W.A. (2003) Branneria bonoculus, new species, a second species in the North American milliped family Branneriidae (Diplopoda: Chordeumatida: Brannerioidea). Zootaxa, 233, 1–7.
Shear,W.A. (In press) A second species in the rare milliped family Apterouridae (Diplopoda: Chordeumatida: Striarioidea). Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington.
Shelley R.M. (1990) A new milliped of the genus Metaxychier from the Pacific Coast of Canada (Polydesmida: Xystodesmida), with remarks on the tribe Chonaphini and western Canadian and Alaskan diplopod fauna. Canadian Journal of Zoology, 68, 2310–2322.
Shelley R.M. (1994) The Chonaphini, a biogeographically significant milliped tribe in eastern and western North America (Polydesmida: Xystodesmidae). Brimleyana, 20, 111–200.