Millipede Systematics in the New Millennium

 

On-line Publication 2001, Version 1.0

Editor: Petra Sierwald, The Field Museum

 

 

Title: Nomenclator Generum Diplopodorum.

A complete genus listing of all genus-group names in the class Diplopoda from 1758 through 1999.

Authors: Jeekel, C. A.W., R. L. Hoffman, R. M. Shelley, P. Sierwald, S. B. Kiser & S. I. Golovatch.

 

Citation of this publication:

Sierwald, Petra (ed.). 2001. Nomenclator Generum Diplopodorum. A complete listing of all genus-group names in the class Diplopoda from 1758 through 1999. Authors: Jeekel, C. A.W., R. L. Hoffman, R. M. Shelley, P. Sierwald, S. B. Kiser & S. I. Golovatch. On-line publication: (DOWNLOAD HERE)

 

This material is based in part upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 97-12438. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

 

Brought to you by The Field Museum and PEET, Partnership for Enhancing Expertise in Taxonomy, a program of the National Science Foundation, USA.

 

 

Introduction

Our planet sustains a magnificent diversity of life forms. Despite over two centuries of biological research, humans are far from even listing all the species living on Earth, much less comprehending integrative topics like their ecological interactions. At the same time, not only are many species in danger of extinction, human expertise is at the brink of extinction, a case in point being the arthropod class Diplopoda. Efficient management and ease of retrieval of existing data will greatly enhance the speed with which we will be able to complete a global inventory of the Earth’s biodiversity.

Essential management tools for the discovery and analysis of biodiversity are comprehensive taxonomic catalogues of organisms. The Nomenclator Generum Diplopodorum is a complete listing of all genus group names in the Diplopoda, described between 1758 and 1999, with full bibliographic data.

 

The printed catalogues which form the basis of this spread sheet are available for purchase.

 

Hoffman, R. L. 1980. Classification of the Diplopoda. Museum d’Histoire Naturelle, Genève, 237pp.

see http://www.ville-ge.ch/musinfo/mhng/index.htm

 

Jeekel, C. A. W. 1971. Nomenclator generum et familiarum Diplopodorum: A list of the genus and family-group names in the Class Diplopoda from the 10th edition of Linnaeus, 1758, to the end of 1957. Monografieën van de Nederlandse Entomologische Vereniging, No 5, 412pp

See http://www.xs4all.nl/~nev/

 

Shelley, R. M., P. Sierwald, S. B. Kiser & S. I. Golovatch.  2000. Nomenclator generum et familiarum Diplopodorum II.. A list of the genus and family-group names in the Class Diplopoda from 1958-1999. Pensoft Publishers, 167pp. Pensoft Series Faunistica No 20.

ISBN 954-642-107-3, see http://www.pensoft.net

 

Organization of the file: MILLGEN1.xls

The Excel spreadsheet contains all millipede genus-group names, with the type-species name and complete bibliographic reference. In addition, an estimate of the number of nominal species in each genus are given. For each genus, its family, subordinal and ordinal placement are given.  All journal names are fully spelled out. Some journals have changed names over time; the journal name given here is the one that was used at the time when a particular taxon was described. Genus names printed in bold are available names. Genus names with parentheses in the preceding field are currently considered subgenera. The subgenus status is noted only for genera described after 1958. Future updates will reflect the subgenus for all nominal genera, if applicable. The systematic placement of genera is taken from Hoffman, 1980, unless newer literature was available and incorporated. The family placement of julid genera follows Enghoff, 1991 (Zeitschrift für Zoologische Systematik und Evolutionsforschung, 29: 241-263). The number of species given for each genus are primarily based on Hoffman, 1980. Hoffman did not give number of included species for genera he considered or cited as junior synonyms. Thus, an estimate of number of included species is not given for each and every genus name.

 

Explanations of fields, Version 1.0; 2001

Asterisk: indicates that a family-group name is based on the genus

Subgenus: the genus name is currently considered a subgenus

Genus: Genus Name

GenusAuthor: Author of the genus

GenusYear: Year of first description of the genus

GenusJournal:  Journal name in which the genus was described

GenusVol: Volume number of journal

GenusPage: page number, where the first description of the genus appears

G: Grammatical gender of the genus name: M = masculine, F = feminine, N = neuter

TypeSpecies: Name of the type species. If the genus name is abbreviated with only one letter in this field, the type species was described in the genus it is still placed in.

TspAuthor: Author of the type-species

TspYear: Year of the first description of the type-species

TspJournal: Journal name in which the type species was described

TspVol: Volume number of journal

TspPage: page number, where the first description of the type species appears

Country: Country from which the type species was described

designation: mode of typification of the genus, e.g., by original designation, monotypy or subsequent designation.

#Species: estimated number of species presently included in the genus

Family: family placement of the genus

Suborder: subordinal placement

Order: ordinal placement

 

Update History

Future updates are planned and they will include subfamilial and tribal placement of genera, senior and junior subjective and objective synonyms, and all family-group names.

Version 1.0, released 1 September 2001

Acknowledgements

I wish to express my sincere gratitude to Dr. Jeekel for his permission to capture the genus names listed in his 1971 catalogue electronically in order to make them available on the Internet. The Nederlandse Entomologische Vereniging also graciously gave its permission. Special thanks are also due to Dr. Hoffman, who gave permission to incorporate major components of his monumental work, Classification of the Diplopoda, into the on-line spread sheet. The Museum d’Histoire Naturelle in Geneva supported this effort and had no objections to the transfer of the data into electronic form.

Whereas the Nomenclator II (Shelley et al, 2000) was generated as an electronic file, Jeekel’s nomenclator was painstakingly typed in by several of my volunteers and proofread by summer intern Anton Antov. Julie Coan, Veronica Felix and Anton Antov accomplished most of the data-entry task. Volunteer Meyer Cornis assisted me enduringly in Field Museum’s splendid library by locating the required volumes. Field Museum’s library staff helped cheerfully and patiently. Volunteer Victor Zubb did an outstanding job expanding many of the originally abbreviated journal names. M. Mauriès and Dr. Enghoff helped us tremendously through their reviews. As always, Dr. H. D. Cameron (University of Michigan), gave us much appreciated advice in linguistic matters.  This effort was funded in full by a PEET grant from the National Science Foundation (DEB 97-12438) to Petra Sierwald (Field Museum) and William A. Shear, (Hampden-Sydney College, Virginia).

 

Your input is required.

We make these data available free of charge to any user. In return, I request that omissions and mistakes, if found by the user, are brought to my attention. Please, please send your corrections and questions to psierwald@fieldmuseum.org, displaying the word: ‘Nomenclator’ in the subject line. In the hopes that millipede research will blossom I also ask you to e-mail me your newly described genus and family-group names, as they will be included in revised and updated files. Together, we can make the millipedes an impressive presence on the Internet.

 

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