Cernethia inopinata Mesibov, 2015

Material examined.

3 M, 3 F, 45 J from three sites in Namadgi National Park (ACT); 24 M, 44 F, 15 J from a single site in the Dinner Plain area (VIC) (Fig. 15 B). See Suppl. material 1 for details.

Remarks.

The type and previously known localities for C. inopinata (open circles in Fig. 15 B) are in a cluster near Brown Mountain in eastern NSW. The new Namadgi National Park locality is ca 135 km to the northwest, but the new Dinner Plain locality in Victoria is more than 200 km southwest from the other localities. The Victorian records are also strange in that 83 C. inopinata specimens were collected in litter and pitfall samples at only one of the three HS 08 sites (L / P 3). At the other two HS 08 sites, ca 250 m to the west, other millipede species were collected but not C. inopinata .

A likely explanation for these results is that C. inopinata has been accidentally introduced in the Dinner Plain area. Site HS 08-O-L / P 3 is close to a major tourist road (Great Alpine Road) and is ca 1 km west of Dinner Plain village, which has a cluster of holiday houses and a small hotel. It would be interesting to sample the Dinner Plain area in future to define the range limits of the local C. inopinata population and monitor any range expansion.

If C. inopinata was introduced via the Great Alpine Road, it may also have been introduced at the type and nearby localities, which are close to the Snowy Mountains Highway, and at the Namadgi National Park site, which is close to the Mt Franklin Road. The original range of this species is thus uncertain.