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
469.
Ommatoiulus sabulosus
(Linnaeus, 1758)
Julus sabulosus
Linnaeus, 1758
.
Iulus aimatopodus
Risso, 1826
.
Archiulus sabulosus
auct.
Palaioiulus sabulosus
auct.
Schizophyllum sabulosum
auct.
Archiulus irregularis
Attems, 1927
.
Ommatoiulus irregularis
auct.
Distribution
AL, AT, BA, BE, BG, BY,
CH
, CZ, DE, DK-DEN, ES-SPA, FI, FR-FRA, GB-CI, GB-GRB, GB-NI, HR, HU, IE, IT-ITA, LT, LU, LV, MC, MK, NL, NO-NOR, PL, RO, RU-KGD, RU-RUC, RU-RUE, RU-RUN, SB, SE, SI, SK, UA. Most of Europe, from the Mediterranean to the Boreal Zones and east to the Ural Mts.
Habitat
Eurytopic, with an altitudinal range of nearly
3000 m
, though it is particularly associated with warm habitats and sandy areas. It is often abundant in sand dune systems and is closely associated with heaths but may be found on limestone as well as sandstone. It is common in more or less open woods on lighter soils but, in
Belgium
at least, it is almost never observed in large closed forests. Yet, in Eastern Europe it is dominant in some
Quercus
and
Picea
stands in the Byelovezskaya Puzcha (
Tarasevich 1992
) and it occurs in the taiga. Adults wander into a very wide variety of habitats from lowland woodlands and grasslands to alpine meadows, usually during the summer. In winter it appears to be more restricted to damper places occurring in the leaf litter and superficial layers of well drained soil. There are several references to its occurrence in wetlands and on moors, including peat bogs.
Remarks
One of the most widely dispersed millipedes in Europe, from
38° N
in Calabria to
64° N
in the taiga of
Finland
. It has not yet been recorded from
Greece
, some major Mediterranean islands and much of
Iberia
, where many other species of
Ommatoiulus
occur. Records from
Portugal
are not reliable (N. Akkari, pers. comm.) It is active in summer when many other species are dormant, spatially very patchy and it undergoes large population fluctuations. Mass swarming has been observed on many occasions (e.g.,
Ehrnsberger 2002
;
Helb 1975
;
Kania & Tracz 2005
;
Voigtländer 2005
). An entirely black form without the two characteristic orange dorsal stripes,
O.s.
aimatopodus
(Risso, 1826)
, is known from some southern departments of
France
. We treat
O. irregularis
as a synonym of
O. sabulosus
on the advice of Nesrine Akkari, who has seen Attems’
type
specimen.
O. irregularis
was included in the Italian checklist (
Strasser & Minelli 1984
) with a question mark, but excluded from the later list of
Foddai
et al.
(1995)
. Numerous other forms have been named but are not listed here.