Opisthocheiridae is a
family of
millipedes belonging to the
order
Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to:
* Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood
* Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of d ...
Chordeumatida.
This family includes 40
species distributed among seven
genera
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nomenclat ...
.
These millipedes are found in
western Europe and
Morocco.
Description
Millipedes in this family range from 5 mm to 16 mm in length. The
paranota are small humps and hardly developed sometimes. The posterior
gonopods
Gonopods are specialized appendages of various arthropods used in reproduction or egg-laying. In males, they facilitate the transfer of sperm from male to female during mating, and thus are a type of intromittent organ. In crustaceans and milli ...
have from one to three segments.
Adult millipedes in this family have 26 or 30 segments (counting the collum as the first segment and the
telson as the last).
This family includes the cave-dwelling species ''
Opisthocheiron canayerensis
''Opisthocheiron canayerensis'' is a species of millipede in the Family (biology), family Opisthocheiridae. This species is found in France, far inside deep caves. This millipede is notable as one of only a few species in the Order (biology), ord ...
'', notable as one of only a few chordeumatidan species with only 26 segments in adults, four fewer segments than typically found in adults in this order.
Genera
This family includes seven genera:
* ''
Brachytropisoma''
Silvestri, 1898
* ''
Ceratosphys''
Ribaut, 1920
* ''
Hispaniosoma''
Ribaut, 1913
* ''
Marquetia''
Ribaut, 1905
* ''
Marquetiella''
Jeekel, 1969
* ''
Opisthocheiron''
Ribaut, 1913
* ''
Sireuma''
Reboleira & Enghoff, 2014
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q4290595
Chordeumatida