Millipedes of Australia

Polydesmida: Paradoxosomatidae

Australian paradoxosomatids are diverse, abundant and widely occurring. Nevertheless, they are still very poorly known, and there are hundreds of undescribed species. Most species seem to have small ranges, and large parts of Australia have never been sampled for paradoxosomatids.

What we do know is that many of Australia's native paradoxosomatids are relatively large, with adult lengths in the range 20-40 mm. They may be absent from arid areas, but they occur in semi-arid and all better-watered habitats, from woodland to rainforest, and from coastal heath to alpine moorland. Locally, paradoxosomatids can be extremely abundant (Mesibov & Churchill 2003).

Most described, native Australian paradoxosomatids are conventionally placed in the subfamily Australiosomatinae Brolemann, 1916. Within this subfamily, natives are currently assigned to the tribes Antichiropodini Brolemann, 1916 and Australiosomatini Brolemann, 1916. This division is not entirely satisfactory and the two tribes as currently constituted may not be natural groups. There are also named natives which may not belong in Australiosomatinae.

For the purposes of this website, paradoxosomatids are catalogued without assigning them to subfamily or tribe. However, a number of names have been separated off as unplaced species because their generic placement is unclear. For a list of genera according to conventional subfamily and tribe placement, see the placements page.

Unfortunately, existing keys to Australian paradoxosomatid genera are incomplete and very much out of date. This website will offer links to regional fauna guides in future.

There are two known introduced paradoxosomatids in Australia, Asiomorpha coarctata and Oxidus gracilis. For information on these species, see the introduced millipede pages on this website. A native paradoxosomatid, Akamptogonus novarae, has become an 'animal weed' in Australia and overseas.