New! Sign up for our free email newsletter.
Science News
from research organizations

Four new dragon millipedes found in China

Date:
October 30, 2014
Source:
Pensoft Publishers
Summary:
Four new species of dragon millipedes from China, two of which are cave dwellers, a team of scientists has described in a new report. The millipede genus Desmoxytes is well-known because the dragon-like appearance of the species in it. The four new species all can be recognized by their spiky body, the distinctive characteristic which gave the representatives of the genus their unique common name.
Share:
FULL STORY

A team of speleobiologists from the South China Agriculture University and the Russian Academy of Sciences have described four new species of dragon millipedes from southern China, two of which seem to be cave dwellers. The study was published in the open access journal ZooKeys.

The millipede genus Desmoxytes is well-known because the dragon-like appearance of the species in it. The four new species all can be recognized by their spiky body, the distinctive characteristic which gave the representatives of the genus their unique common name.

Unlike other groups of cave millipedes, which are usually very common, the representatives of Desmoxytes are comparatively rare in caves, and always with low in numbers populations. In addition, they are often distributed in a narrow geographical area, or even only present in a single cave, or cave system. Because of such rarity and endemism, dragon millipedes are ideal material for evolutionary studies.

China holds the most diverse resources of Desmoxytes. Up to now, China has 14 millipedes from this genus, including 9 cavernicolous species. It is believed, however, that the country holds a greater diversity of these bizarre creatures, which are yet to be discovered in future.


Story Source:

Materials provided by Pensoft Publishers. The original story is licensed under a Creative Commons License. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


Journal Reference:

  1. Weixin Liu, Sergei Golovatch, Mingyi Tian. A review of the dragon millipede genus Desmoxytes Chamberlin, 1923 in China, with descriptions of four new species (Diplopoda, Polydesmida, Paradoxosomatidae). ZooKeys, 2014; 448: 9 DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.448.8081

Cite This Page:

Pensoft Publishers. "Four new dragon millipedes found in China." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 30 October 2014. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/10/141030114955.htm>.
Pensoft Publishers. (2014, October 30). Four new dragon millipedes found in China. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 18, 2024 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/10/141030114955.htm
Pensoft Publishers. "Four new dragon millipedes found in China." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/10/141030114955.htm (accessed March 18, 2024).

Explore More

from ScienceDaily

RELATED STORIES