This study documents the first detailed phylogenetic analysis of an Australian paradoxosomatid millipede
genus. Two mitochondrial genes (partial COI and 16S) as well as partial nuclear 28S rDNA were ampli-
fied and sequenced for 41 individuals of the southeastern Australian genus Pogonosternum Jeekel, 1965.
The analysis indicates that five species groups of Pogonosternum occur across New South Wales, Victoria
and Tasmania: P. nigrovirgatum (Carl, 1912), P. adrianae Jeekel, 1982, P. laetificum Jeekel, 1982 and
two undescribed species. P. coniferum (Jeekel, 1965) specimens cluster within P. nigrovirgatum. Most
of these five species groups exhibit a pattern of high intraspecific genetic variability and highly local-
ized haplotypes, suggesting that they were confined to multiple Pleistocene refugia on the southeastern
Australian mainland. The phylogenetic data also show that northwestern Tasmania was colonized by P.
nigrovirgatum, probably from central Victoria, and northeastern Tasmania by an as yet undescribed spe-
cies from eastern Victoria.
