Atlas of European millipedes 2: Order Julida (Class Diplopoda)
Author
Kime, Richard Desmond
847CC68F-00BF-4DAB-8E53-B7A3384D66C1
Email: deskime 2 @ aol. com & urn: lsid: zoobank. org: author: 847 CC 68 F- 00 BF- 4 DAB- 8 E 53 - B 7 A 3384 D 66 C 1
deskime2@aol.com
Author
Enghoff, Henrik
FB09A817-000D-43C3-BCC4-2BC1E5373635
urn: lsid: zoobank. org: author: FB 09 A 817 - 000 D- 43 C 3 - BCC 4 - 2 BC 1 E 5373635 & Corresponding author: henghoff @ snm. ku. dk
henghoff@snm.ku.dk
text
European Journal of Taxonomy
2017
2017-08-29
346
1
299
journal article
21780
10.5852/ejt.2017.346
39926986-58ae-4af8-831c-689b7c8dbbc6
2118-9773
3866525
9600FFB8-3FB9-4522-B030-D5A6B145EDEB
69.
Allajulus nitidus
(Verhoeff, 1891)
Iulus nitidus
Verhoeff, 1891
.
Cylindroiulus nitidus
auct.
Ypsiloniulus nitidus
auct.
Cylindroiulus nitidus rhenanus
Verhoeff, 1910
.
Distribution
AT, BE,
CH
, CZ, DE, DK-DEN, FR-FRA, GB-GRB, IS, LU, NL, NO-NOR, PL, SE. Central European, extending north to Scandinavia and Britain.
Habitat
A species particularly found in closed woodland on brown earth soils, strongly associated with clay, mull humus and active calcium, although it does occur on lighter neutral to moderately acidic soils and is scarce or absent from heavy waterlogged soils. Rare in sandy areas and in acidic woodlands on higher ground, yet it has been found on both Muschelkalk and Vosges Sandstone in
Alsace
, in montane
Fagus
woods up to
1600 m
in the French Alps (
Geoffroy 1981b
) and up to
2175 m
in
Switzerland
(Pedroli- Christen 1993).
Associated with deciduous forest, especially
Quercus
/
Carpinus
, and while frequent in beech hangers, less so with
Fagus
. Other trees and shrubs frequently present are
Fraxinus excelsior
,
Acer campestre
A. pseudoplatanus
,
Prunus avium
,
Cornus alba
and
Corylus avellana
. In many of these woods ivy (
Hedera helix
) is omnipresent and in many of those on heavy calcareous soils it is by far the dominant species of millipede. Occasionally it is found in mixed forest with
Pinus
and other conifers.
Allajulus nitidus
is most abundant in the lowlands and in the montane zone, increasingly synanthropic in the north of its range.
Remarks
It burrows readily and may be found throughout the year in the soil. It migrates vertically (
Geoffroy 1981a
) and is generally nearer the surface during the spring and again in the autumn, being hygrophile. It is very common in suitable soils throughout west-central Europe A very variable species; males may go through several successive morphologically mature stadia; hence, there is a wide range of sizes and body ring numbers (
Sahli 1969
,
1986
;
Voigtländer 1987
; Enghoff
et al.
1993;
Akkari & Enghoff 2011
).