Spirobolida

Life-forms

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Cladus: Unikonta
Cladus: Opisthokonta
Cladus: Holozoa
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Cladus: Protostomia
Cladus: Ecdysozoa
Cladus: Panarthropoda
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Myriapoda
Classis: Diplopoda
Subclassis: Chilognatha
Infraclassis: Helminthomorpha
Superordo: Anocheta
Ordo: Spirobolida
Familiae (13): Allopocockiidae – Atopetholidae – Atopochetidae – Floridobolidae – Hoffmanobolidae – Messicobolidae – Onychelidae – Pachybolidae – Pseudospirobolellidae – Rhinocricidae – Spirobolellidae – Spirobolidae – Typhlobolellidae
Genera incertae sedis: Amblybolus – Banosolus

Name

Spirobolida Bollman, 1893
References

Pitz, K.M. & Sierwald, P. 2010. Phylogeny of the millipede order Spirobolida (Arthropoda: Diplopoda: Helminthomorpha). Cladistics 26(5): 497–525. DOI: 10.1111/j.1096-0031.2009.00303.x
Wesener, T., Enghoff, H. & Sierwald, P. 2009. Review of the Spirobolida on Madagascar, with descriptions of twelve new genera, including three genera of 'fire millipedes' (Diplopoda). ZooKeys 19: 1–128. DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.19.221

Spirobolida is an order of "round-backed" millipedes containing approximately 500 species in 12 families.[1] Its members are distinguished by the presence of a "pronounced suture that runs "vertically down the front of the head".[2] Most of the species live in the tropics, and many are brightly coloured.[2] Mature males have two pairs of modified legs, the gonopods, consisting of the 8th and 9th leg pair: the posterior gonopods are used in sperm-transfer while the anterior gonopods are fused into a single plate-like structure.[3]
Front and rear views of the anterior (A, B) and posterior left (C, D) gonopods of a spirobolidan

The families are divided into two suborders:[1]

Suborder Spirobolidea

Allopocockiidae
Atopetholidae
Floridobolidae
Hoffmanobolidae
Messicobolidae
Pseudospirobolellidae
Rhinocricidae
Spirobolellidae
Spirobolidae
Typhlobolellidae

Suborder Trigoniulidea

Pachybolidae
Trigoniulidae

Select species

Narceus americanus, a commonly seen species in eastern North America
Crurifarcimen vagans, the "Wandering Leg Sausage"
Anadenobolus monilicornis, the Yellow-banded Millipede
Eucarlia, a genus of threatened Indo-Pacific millipedes

References

Shear, W. (2011). "Class Diplopoda de Blainville in Gervais, 1844. In: Zhang, Z.-Q. (Ed.) Animal biodiversity: An outline of higher-level classification and survey of taxonomic richness" (PDF). Zootaxa. 3148: 159–164.
Stephen P. Hopkin & Helen J. Read (1992). "Taxonomy, evolution, and zoogeography". The Biology of millipedes. Oxford University Press. pp. 8–23. ISBN 978-0-19-857699-0.
"Putative apomorphies of millipede clades" (PDF). Milli-PEET: Millipede Systematics. The Field Museum, Chicago, IL. 26 September 2006.