The millipedes and centipedes of Chiapas amber

Francisco Riquelme,Miguel Hernández-Patricio

doi:10.15560/14.4.637

Abstract

An inventory of fossil millipedes (class Diplopoda) and centipedes (class Chilopoda) from Miocene Chiapas amber, Mexico, is presented, with the inclusion of new records. For Diplopoda, 34 members are enumerated, for which 31 are described as new fossil records of the orders Siphonophorida Newport, 1844, Spirobolida Bollman, 1893, Polydesmida Leach, 1895, Stemmiulida Pocock, 1894, and the superorder Juliformia Attems, 1926. For Chilopoda 8 fossils are listed, for which 3 are new records of the order Geophilomorpha Pocock, 1895 and 2 are of the order Scolopendromorpha Pocock, 1895.

Highlights

The extant species of millipedes and centipedes distributed across Mexico have been studied since the initial reports of Brand (1839) and Persbosc (1839)
A current review of millipedes (Diplopoda) in Mexico was published by Bueno-Villegas et al (2004) and reviews of centipedes (Chilopoda) were reported by Cupul-Magaña (2013) and Flores-Guerrero et al (2015)
A second set of specimens was examined from the amber inclusion collection that belongs to the Museo del Ambar de Chiapas (MACH) and a third set of specimens was examined from the collection of the Museo del Ambar Lilia Mijangos (MALM), both located in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas

Summary

Introduction

The extant species of millipedes and centipedes distributed across Mexico have been studied since the initial reports of Brand (1839) and Persbosc (1839). A current review of millipedes (Diplopoda) in Mexico was published by Bueno-Villegas et al (2004) and reviews of centipedes (Chilopoda) were reported by Cupul-Magaña (2013) and Flores-Guerrero et al (2015). The latter includes the fossil species Scolopocryptops simojovelensis Edgecombe et al 2012 (Scolopendromorpha) from Chiapas Amber. Other records of millipedes have been mentioned in the literature but are questionable because of a lack of data and evidence (Hurd et al 1962, Avendaño-Gil et al 2012, Ross et al 2016) or because specimens are not available (Hurd et al 1962, Avendaño-Gil et al 2012)

Methods

Results

Conclusion