Rm. Shelley, REVISION OF THE MILLIPEDE FAMILY PAEROMOPODIDAE, AND ELEVATION OF THEAPROSPHYLOSOMATINAE TO FAMILY STATUS (JULIDA, PAEROMOPODOIDEA), Entomologica Scandinavica, 25(2), 1994, pp. 169-214
The family Paeromopodidae is comprised of large, agile millipeds that
include the longest diplopods in the Nearctic. It is endemic to three
regions in the western United States - a large, irregular area extendi
ng from the southern Sierra Nevada Mountains and the Monterey Peninsul
a of California to the northern Puget Sound region of Washington, a sm
all, ovoid area in the Warner Mountains of northeastern California and
the adjacent fringes of Oregon and Nevada, and an area in the northwe
stern interior extending from the Wallowa Mountains of northeastern Or
egon to Flathead Lake, Montana. Representatives have flat, plate-like
gonopods that represent the coxites; the flagellum is absent from the
anterior gonopods and the telopodite is lost from both gonopod pairs.
The family includes two genera: Paeromopus Karsch, with five species -
angusticeps (Wood), eldoradus, cavicolens, and buttensis, all by Cham
berlin, and ocellatus Loomis - and Californiulus Verhoeff, with five s
pecies - chamberlini (Brolemann), comb. n., dorsovittatus Verhoeff, yo
semitensis Chamberlin, euphanus (Chamberlin), and parvior (Chamberlin)
. The principal taxonomic features involve the configurations of the d
istal and midlength projections of the anterior gonopods and the termi
nal or subterminal projections of the posterior genitalia. Californiul
us chamberlini, dorsovittatus, and yosemitensis display broad, yellow,
middorsal stripes, the last also with a median black line, and the ot
her species exhibit light or dark transverse bands. The following new
synonymies are proposed: P. lysiopetalinus Karsch and pistus Chamberli
n, and Paeromopellus sphinx Verhoeff, under P. angusticeps; Klansolus
zantus Chamberlin under C. chamberlini; C. vicinus Chamberlin under C.
dorsovittatus; K. mononus and obscurans, both by Chamberlin, under C.
yosemitensis; and K. socius and Aigon rodocki, both by Chamberlin, un
der C. parvior. The monobasic subfamily Aprosphylosomatinae, accommoda
ting Aprosphylosoma Hoffman, is elevated to family status in the super
family Paeromopodoidea. Its sole species, A. darceneae Hoffman, known
only from Oregon, is small-bodied, dark mottled brown in color, and ha
s a separate coxite and telopodite on the anterior gonopod.