Spirostreptida

Not to be confused with Spirobolida.

Spirostreptida is an order of long, cylindrical millipedes. There are approximately 1000 described species,^[1] making Spirostreptida the third largest order of millipedes after Polydesmida and Chordeumatida.

Spirostreptida Temporal range: Cenomanian–Present PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Orthoporus sp. (Spirostreptidae) from North America
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Subphylum:	Myriapoda
Class:	Diplopoda
Superorder:	Juliformia
Order:	Spirostreptida Brandt, 1833
Families
10: see text.

Description

Spirostreptida are generally large, long and cylindrical, with 30 to 90 body rings. Eyes are present in most.^[2] This order contains the longest millipedes known: the giant African millipedes of the genus Archispirostreptus that may exceed 30 centimetres (12 in).^[2]

Distribution

Spirostreptida contains mainly tropical species, and occurs in Africa, Southern Asia to Japan, Australia, and the Western Hemisphere from the United States to Argentina.^[3]

Evolutionary history

Like most millipede groups, they have a fragmentary fossil record. The oldest record of the group is the extinct family Electrocambalidae, which is known from the Burmese amber of Myanmar, dating to the Cenomanian stage of the Late Cretaceous around 99 million years ago, which belongs to the suborder Cambalidea. The only other fossil records of the group are Protosilvestria from the Oligocene of France, which belongs to either Cambalidae or Cambalopsidae, and an undescribed species of Epinannolene (Pseudonannolenidae) from the Miocene aged Dominican amber.^[4]

Classification

The order comprises two suborders, Cambalidea and Spirostreptidea, the latter further divided into two superfamilies.^[1]

Cambala minor (Cambalidae), a cave-millipede from eastern North America

Suborder Cambalidea

Cambalidae

Cambalopsidae (includes the former Glyphiulidae and Pericambalidae)^[1]

Choctellidae

Iulomorphidae

Pseudonannolenidae

†Electrocambalidae

Suborder Spirostreptidea

Superfamily Odontopygoidea

Atopogestidae

Odontopygidae

Superfamily Spirostreptoidea

Adiaphorostreptidae

Harpagophoridae

Spirostreptidae

Select species

• Phyllogonostreptus nigrolabiatus- a large species from India
• Spinotarsus caboverdus- a species that has become an agricultural pest in Cape Verde