Millipedes (Diplopoda) from Caves of Portugal

Abstract

Millipedes play an important role in the decomposition of organic matter in the subterranean environment. Despite the existence of several cave-adapted species of millipedes in adjacent geographic areas, their study has been largely ignored in Portugal. Over the last decade, intense fieldwork in caves of the mainland and the island of Madeira has provided new data about the distribution and diversity of millipedes. A review of millipedes from caves of Portugal is presented, listing fourteen species belonging to eight families, among which six species are considered troglobionts. The distribution of millipedes in caves of Portugal is discussed and compared with the troglobiont biodiversity in the overall Iberian Peninsula and the Macaronesian archipelagos.

The cavernicolous Oniscidea (Crustacea: Isopoda) of Portugal

“…The recent rise in the number of known subterranean species is a result of the extensive use of a standard sampling methodology in a large number of karst caves, which has also provided new taxa of other caveadapted arthropod groups (Reboleira 2012;Reboleira et al 2009Reboleira et al , 2010aReboleira et al , 2010bReboleira et al , 2010cReboleira et al , 2011bReboleira et al , 2012aReboleira et al , 2012bReboleira et al , 2013bReboleira & Enghoff 2014a). The richness of terrestrial isopods in the subterranean ecosystems of Portugal, and by extension of the Iberian Peninsula, requires a consistent sampling effort to reach a complete level of evaluation.…”

First continental troglobiont Cylindroiulus millipede (Diplopoda, Julida, Julidae)

“…Several other caves in the same massif have been intensively sampled without retrieving any specimen of the new species. Only the troglophile chordeumatidan Haplobainosomalusitanum Verhoeff, 1900 (family Haplobainosomatidae) has been recorded in caves of the same massif, while two epigean unidentified species of Cylindroiulus are also known from the mesovoid shallow substrate (MSS) in same massif (Reboleira and Enghoff 2014a). …”

“…Cave-adapted species of Cylindroiulus species were only known from Madeira Island, whereas in continental Europe only two anophthalmic, but not troglobiont, species were known (Reboleira and Enghoff 2014a, Read 2007). …”

“…Only very recently cave-adapted species of millipedes from Portugal have started to dig out of the dark and become known to science (Enghoff and Reboleira 2013, Reboleira and Enghoff 2013a, b, 2014a, b, c, 2017). Recently, a new species of Cylindroiulus has been found in a cave in the Estremenho massif in central Portugal.…”