The millipedes of the Maltese Islands (Central Mediterranean) (Diplopoda)

Abstract

Previous records of millipedes from the Maltese Islands are very few. Gulia (1890) listes five species: Glomeris marginatus Leach, Julus terrestris Lin., Julus sabulosus Lin., Julus modestus Risso and Lysiopetalum foetidissimum Savi. None of these names is valid for any of the species found on the Islands during the present study and in the case of the "Julus" spp. it is even impossible to guess which of the Maltese species Gulia was referring to. In the modern literature we have only been able to find two records of millipedes from the Maltese Islands: Strasser (1969 a) recorded Schizophyllum oxypygum (= Ommotoiulus oxypygum) and the same author (Strasser, 1969 b) recorded Acanthopetalum sicanum. The present study is based on a large collection of some 600 millipedes amassed over the period 1975-87 by systematic collecting in all Maltese habitat types and summarizes our taxonomic (HE) and ecological (PTS) knowledge of the Diplopoda of the Maltese Islands.