Polyxenidae

Polyxenidae
Temporal range:
Polyxenus lagurus
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Myriapoda
Class: Diplopoda
Order: Polyxenida
Superfamily: Polyxenoidea
Family:
Lucas, 1840
Four species of Unixenus from Australia. Scale bars = 0.5 mm.

Polyxenidae is a family of millipedes in the order Polyxenida.[1][2][3] This family includes 109 species distributed among 23 genera.[4] This family has a worldwide distribution, with species found on all continents except Antarctica.[5][3]

Description

Millipedes in this family range from 1.2 mm to 4.2 mm in length (not including the bundle of bristles at the tail end). All adults in this family feature 10 tergites in front of the telson and 13 pairs of legs. The male in this family features two to six pairs of pores on leg pairs 6 through 11. The male places his spermatophores on fine threads excreted from these pores.[5]

Genera

  • Allographis Silvestri 1948
  • Anopsxenus Condé & Jacquemin 1963
  • Chilexenus Silvestri 1948
  • Eudigraphis Silvestri 1948
  • Macroxenodes Silvestri 1948
  • Macroxenus Brölemann 1917
  • Mauritixenus Verhoeff 1939
  • Mesoxenontus Silvestri 1948
  • Miopsxenus Condé 1951
  • Monographis Attems 1907
  • Monoxenus Jones 1937
  • Pauropsxenus Silvestri 1948 (Fossil species known from Burmese amber, Cenomanian)
  • Pollyxenus Latreille 1802/1803
  • Polyxenus Latzel 1884
  • Propolyxenus Silvestri 1948
  • Saroxenus Cook 1896
  • Silvestrus Jones 1937
  • Typhloxenus Condé 1955
  • Unixenus Jones 1944
  • Electroxenus Nguyen Duy-Jacquemin and Azar 2004 Lebanese amber, Barremian
  • Libanoxenus Nguyen Duy-Jacquemin and Azar 2004 Lebanese amber, Barremian

References

  1. ^ Shear, William (2011). "Class Diplopoda de Blainville in Gervais, 1844. In: Zhang, Z.-Q. (Ed.) Animal biodiversity: An outline of higher-level classification and survey of taxonomic richness" (PDF). Zootaxa. 3148: 159–164. ISSN 1175-5334.
  2. ^ "MilliBase - Polyxenidae Lucas, 1840". www.millibase.org. Retrieved 24 July 2025.
  3. ^ a b "Polyxenidae". www.gbif.org. Retrieved 24 July 2025.
  4. ^ "Polyxenidae Lucas, 1840 | COL". www.catalogueoflife.org. Retrieved 24 July 2025.
  5. ^ a b Enghoff, Henrik; Golovatch, Sergei; Short, Megan; Stoev, Pavel; Wesener, Thomas (1 January 2015). "Diplopoda — taxonomic overview". Treatise on Zoology - Anatomy, Taxonomy, Biology. The Myriapoda, Volume 2: 363–453. doi:10.1163/9789004188273_017. ISBN 9789004188273.