Faunistic records are provided, summarized and
mapped for several smaller families of the
millipede order Polydesmida in Taiw
an. Both Pyrgodesmidae and Opisot
retidae are new to the Taiwanese
list. The former family is represented there by the nearly pantropical
Cryptocorypha ornata
(Attems, 1938)
which is new to the island’s fauna, as well as by two new species of
Ampelodesmus
Miyosi, 1956:
A
.
taiwanensis
n. sp. and
A. similis
n. sp.; both latter taxa are incorporated
in a key to all five species of the
genus. Cryptodesmidae are actually represented in Taiwan by a single, widespread, briefly redescribed and
richly illustrated species,
Niponia nodulosa
Verhoeff, 1931 (=
Onomatoplanus simplexus
Wang, 1957, n.
syn.), while both Opisotretidae and Xystodesmidae by a closer unidentified species of ?
Corypholophus
Attems, 1937 and
Riukiaria
Attems, 1938, respectively. In addition to
Eutrichodesmus taiwanensis
Golovatch, Mikhaljova,
Korsós and Chang, 2010, the family
Haplodesmidae contains in Taiwan
the almost
pantropical
Prosopodesmus jacobsoni
Silvestri, 1910, thus conf
irming an earlier record.