Arthrosphaeridae

Arthrosphaeridae is a family of giant pill millipedes that are found in Madagascar, the Western Ghats of India, and Sri Lanka. The largest pill-millipede in the world, Zoosphaerium neptunus (Butler 1872) belongs to this family and is known to swarm at certain times of the year.^[1]

Arthrosphaeridae
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Subphylum:	Myriapoda
Class:	Diplopoda
Order:	Sphaerotheriida
Family:	Arthrosphaeridae Jeekel, 1974

Description

The first segment of the anterior telopods have a stridulatory organ known as a "harp" and this has one to ten ribs. The anal plate on the female is enlarged and has 1-12 ribs while the male anal shield has no special sclerotized notch as seen in other families. The segments of the antenna are oval or cylindrical.^[2]

Taxonomy

Within the family Arthrosphaeridae there are four genus formally described:

• Arthrosphaera Pocock, 1895 – India, Sri Lanka
• Microsphaerotherium Wesener & van den Spiegel, 2007 – Madagascar
• Sphaeromimus de Saussure & Zehntner, 1902 – Southeast Madagascar
• Zoosphaerium Pocock, 1895 – Madagascar