Spirobolus Brandt, 1833

Shelley, Rowland M. & Floyd, Samuel D., 2014, Expanded concept of the milliped family Spirobolidae Diplopoda: Spirobolida: Spirobolidea): Proposals of Aztecolini n. tribe and Floridobolinae / ini and Tylobolini n. stats.; (re) descriptions of Floridobolus and F. penneri, both Causey, 1957, and F. orini n. sp.; hypotheses on origins and affinities, Insecta Mundi 2014 (357), pp. 1-50 : 31-32

Genus Spirobolus Brandt, 1833

Spirobolus Brandt, 1833:203 . Porath, 1872:14–17. Pocock, 1894a:484; 1894b:388; 1908:74–76. Attems, 1909:25 (list); 1910:90 (key). Brölemann, 1913:472–476; 1914:3, 20, 31–32. Hoffman and Crabill, 1953:80. Hoffman, 1957:67. Hoffman and Keeton, 1960:22. Jeekel, 1971:205. Wang and Zhang, 1993:845. Zhang et al., 1997:509. Golovatch and Hoffman, 2000:233.

Iulus (not Linnaeus): Gervais, 1847:137–138.

Prospirobolus Attems, 1910:90 . Hoffman, 1957:67. Hoffman and Keeton, 1960:20. Jeekel, 1971:204.

Sinobolus Chamberlin and Wang, 1953:12 . Hoffman, 1957:67. Hoffman and Keeton, 1960:21. Jeekel, 1971:205.

Type-species.Of Spirobolus , S. bungii Brandt, 1833 , by subsequent designation of Pocock (1894); of Prospirobolus , Spirobolus joannisi Brölemann, 1896 , by original designation; of Sinobolus , Spirobolus joannsi (sic) Brölemann, 1896, by original designation.

Diagnosis. Posterior gonopod prefemoral process short and relatively broad, not dactyliform; lobes generally short, broad, and irregular, basal lobe generally broader than distal part; length no more than half that of acropodite, situated medial to and not overhung or enveloped by latter.

Components. Six nominal species: S. bungii Brandt, 1833 ; S. walkeri Pocock, 1895 ; and S. umbobrochus , grahami, formosae, all by Keeton, 1960; and S. cincinnalis D. Wang and Zhang, 1993 ( Keeton 1960a, D. Wang and Mauriès 1996, Korsós 2004). D. Wang and Mauriès (1996) assigned Trigoniulus niger , takahasii, segmentatus, and tertius , all by Takakuwa (1940), Spirostrophus lanyusis Y. Wang, 1955 , and Spirobolellus takakuwai Y. Wang, 1961 , to Spirobolidae but left them in their original combinations. Korsós (2004) placed the last name in synonymy under Paraspirobolus lucifugus (Gervais, 1836) and returned T. tertius and Spirostrophus lanyusis to their original families. Likewise, we now return T. niger , takahasii, and segmentatus to Trigoniulidae , as the gonopodal illustrations in Takakuwa (1954) clearly refer them to the suborder Trigoniulidea .

Distribution ( Fig. 31 ). The extant familial/subfamilial/tribal area in east Asia; we shade all of Taiwan because Spirobolus / Spirobolini /inae/idae/idea may occur subcontinuously in this small island. On the Asian continent, the taxa are known from eastern China, extending from Zhoushan Island, Zhejiang Prov., on the East China Sea, to central Sichuan Prov. north of the Laos / Myanmar border, an east-west distance of around 1,926 km (1,204 mi) or around 59% of the country’s breadth. North-south, they are known from the Great Wall of China in northern Beijing Prov. to northern Guizhou Prov., a latitudinal distance of around 1,389 km (868 mi), and S.? bungii was encountered north of Beijing on the Wall itself by B.A. Snyder in 2011. To our knowledge, this is the northernmost Asian record of extant Spirobolini , but the locality of Gobiulus sabulosus , the Mongolian, Cretaceous fossil, is slightly more northern.

Figures

Figure 31. Distribution of Spirobolidea/idea/inae/ini in Asia. Black dots and complete shading of Taiwan, Spirobolus spp. Red star, approximate location of the Mongolian, Cretaceous fossils assigned to Gobiulus (Floridobolinae: Tylobolini).