Animalia > Arthropoda > Diplopoda > Sphaerotheriida

Sphaerotheriida (Millipedes)

Wikipedia Abstract

Sphaerotheriida (from the Latin sphaerium = ball) is an order of millipedes in the infraclass Pentazonia, sometimes known as giant pill millipedes. They inhabit Southern Africa, Madagascar, South and Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Like the Northern Hemisphere pill millipedes of the order Glomerida, these millipedes can roll into a ball when disturbed. When they are rolled-up, most sphaerotheriidans reach a maximum size of a cherry or golf ball, but some species from Madagascar can even reach the size of an orange (an example of island gigantism). When rolled-up, predators are unable to unravel giant pill millipedes since the margins of their second and last dorsal plates fit perfectly into one another, creating a sealed ball. A few giant pill millipede species are able to prod
View Wikipedia Record: Sphaerotheriida

Family

Arthrosphaeridae (135)   (17)
Cyliosomatidae (22)
Procyliosomatidae (2)
Sphaeropoeidae (1)
Sphaerotheriidae (Millipede) (62)
Zephroniidae (177)   (1)

(...) = Species count
(...) = Endangered count
(...) = Invasive count

External References

Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0