Chordeumatida Koch, 1847

Shear, William A., 2010, 2385, Zootaxa 2385, pp. 1-62 : 8-9

Order Chordeumatida Koch, 1847

Superfamily Cleidogonoidea, Cook 1896 1

Family Trichopetalidae, Verhoeff 1914

Trichopetalinae Verhoeff, 1914:347 .

Trichopetalidae Verhoeff, 1932:485 . Hoffman, 1961:262; 1999:233 (list). Shear, 1972:274; 2003:12.

Type genus: Trichopetalum Harger 1872 .

Included genera: Trichopetalum Harger 1872 , Scoterpes Cope 1872 , Zygonopus Ryder 1881 , Trigenotyla Causey 1951 , Mexiterpes Causey 1963 , Causeyella Shear 2003 , Nannopetalum Shear 2003 .

Diagnosis: A family of Cleidogonoidea distinct in the modification of the ninth legs of males (telopodites reduced to one or a few articles and directed laterally or dorsally), great development of the metatergal setae, and in the (usual) presence of a strong fimbriate branch on the gonopod colpocoxite. Many, but not all, species have distinctive trichomes on the gonopod coxae and angiocoxites. For further details, see Shear (2003).

Distribution: North America, from Newfoundland west to Ontario and Wisconsin and south to Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas and Oklahoma (few records from the coastal plain from Virginia to Georgia or the Gulf Coastal Plain), highlands of northeastern and central Mexico.

Discussion: Causey (1969) established a tribe “Scoterpini” (recte: Scoterpetini ) to include the genera Scoterpes and Trigenotyla ; this was missed by Hoffman in his monumental Checklist of the Millipeds of North and Middle America (2000), although Causey’s paper appears in his bibliography. Otherwise no division of the family into subordinate family-level taxa has been made previously.

Mexiterpes clearly stands apart from the rest of the family, so is herein made the type of a new subfamily.