While there are two indigenous families, Hirudisomatidae and Polyzoniidae, with a dozen European species, a third family, Siphonotidae, is represented in Europe by one species, Rhinotus purpureus (pocock, 1894) which has been found in a hothouse in the UK. R purpureus is a widely distributed, tropical 'tramp ' species (Hoffman 1999). There have been two importa nt reviews in the recent past, Kurnik & Thaler (1989) and Shelley (199 7).