Biogeography of East African montane forest millipedes - Biogeography and Ecology of the Rain Forests of Eastern Africa - page 106

possible! Living specimens can be gently unrolled
sufficiently that the 7th segment is visible from
below: in polydesmoid species the two gonopods
will be readily visible as large scleroised objects.
In the 'juliform' groups the genitalia are contained
inside the 7th segment but the apices are usually
visible and the 6th and 7th segments are
somewhat enlarged over the others.
Anyone collecing in ropical parts of the world,
especially if somewhat distant from settlements
and plantaions, can be certain that even the most
casual collecions of millipedes will contain a large
proporion of new or rare species, and new genera
are sill commonplace. Probably only one-eighth
of the eising millipede fauna has so ar been
described, and most of the ropical species are sill
known only from the original locality.

abundant and widespread Tanzanian families in
the light of their occurrence in the arc of block-
fault mountains.

Faly Spirosrepidae. One of the largest of
all diplopod families, the Spirostrepidae is
amphiatlanic with about equal diversificaion in
the Neotropical and Ethiopian regions. The num-
ber of African genera is not yet established, but 60
is a minimal esimate. Spirostrepids tend to
favour wooded habitats, and only a fe w of the
larger species have adapted to semi-arid savanna
or scrub forest habitats. So far, 21 genera have
been found in Tanzania, several of which appear
to be partly or enirely confined to montane forest.
Unfortunately, three of these taxa remain to be
defined and published.
Hap /ogonpus (Verhoeff, 1941) is represented
by a single species, H. infiatannu/us Verhoeff, in
the Uluguru Mountains. This large animal is
characterised by the disinct elevaion of the
metazona and simplified gonopod telopodites,
and has, so far as is now known, no close relaives.
Pseudotibiozus (Demange, 1978) is known from
P. cerasopus (Attems) in the East Usambaras, P.
anau/ax (Attems) from the Wami River valley east
of the Ngurus, and P. sucatu/us (Pocock) rom
cenral easten Kenya. There are also undes-
cribed species in the West Usambaras, Ulugurus,
Uzungwas, and northen Mbarikas in the mon-
tane arc, and from Pugu Forest and Zanzibar
Island in coastal rain forest. The gonopods of all
these species are quite similar but marked dif-
fe rences occur in size, colour, body texture, col-
lum shape, and other peripheral characters. A
fairly young evoluionary status is assumed for this
genus, which has not yet been placed with
reference to close relaives. Undoubtedly many
more undescribed species will be discovered.
'Undescribed genus I' includes only
Sp irostrptus montanus Attems, from Kilimanjaro.
'Undescribed genus 11' will be based on S.
strony/otrop is Attems, which is known from the
East Usambaras and Ngurus, as well as Pugu
Forest on the coast. 'Undescribed genus III' will
encompass Ep istrptus austeus Attems and E.
hamatus Demange from the East Usambaras, plus
a number of undescribed species from Zanzibar,

Survey of selected montane forest
diplopod txa

The following account of millipede distribuion in
the montane forests of East Africa is of necessity
based largely upon the condiions that prevail in
Tanzania, the only counry in that region whose
diplopod fauna is at all well known. Reference to
other African states is generally made only in the
most general terms, for reasons which will be only
too evident.
Presently five orders and 11 families of
Diplopoda have been found in Tanzania. Of the
latter, current knowledge of the classificaion and
distribuion permits reference to only about six,
the other families being either poorly collected or
in need of complete revision (or both); this limi-
taion applies especially to those families that
include small to iny species. Of the larger and
relaively better-known taxa, only the Oy-
desmidae has been studied in detail (Hoffman,
1990) and will therefore claim the lion's share of
attenion in the ollowing account. Other work
(R.L.H., unpublished data) suggests that the
detailed distribuional pattens in other families
are of at least equal interest and likely to yield
substaniaing data as soon as their systemaic
status has been upgraded.
For the present, it must suffice to present a
brief indicaion of the condiion of these five