Cylindroiulus britannicus (Verhoeff, 1891)

Kime, Richard Desmond & Enghoff, Henrik, 2017, Atlas of European millipedes 2: Order Julida (Class Diplopoda), European Journal of Taxonomy 346, pp. 1-299 : 53-54

113. Cylindroiulus britannicus (Verhoeff, 1891)

Iulus britannicus Verhoeff, 1891 .

Cylindroiulus pollicaris Attems, 1904 .

Cylindroiulus pollinaris Attems, 1933 (misspelling of pollicaris ).

Distribution

AT, CZ, DE, DK-DEN, ES-CNY, ES-SPA, FI, FR-FRA, GB-GRB, GB-NI, IE, LT, NL, NO-NOR, PL, PT-AZO, PT-MDR, PT-POR, RO, RU-RUC, RU-RUW, SE, UA. – Also widely introduced into Siberia and the Afrotropical, Australian, Nearctic, Neotropical and Oriental regions.

Habitat

In Britain and Ireland it is found beneath the bark of dead deciduous tree trunks and stumps and in their decomposing wood. Sometimes in the soil but, if so, usually close to wood or leaf litter ( Blower 1985). These remarks apply to rural and semi-natural woodland habitats. There are several records from alder ( Alnus ) woods near rivers in NW Spain and England; a very large population occurred in an Alnus / Salix swamp with Carex at Stodmarsh Nature Reserve in Kent. Yet, it also has a strong relationship with urban sites in Britain and Ireland ( Lee 2006). In the majority of other countries it appears to be mostly or exclusively synanthropic, occurring particularly in cities and cultivated areas. The close link with parks, gardens and market gardens with greenhouses suggests that specimens found out of doors may be reliant on artificially warm habitats for much of the year in the North. In Sweden the records from the northern provinces of Västerbotten and Norrbotten are associated with greenhouses, as are records from Finland and elsewhere. Such records are not shown on the map. Cylindroiulus britannicus was found on an afforested colliery spoil heap with garden refuse in Germany ( Decker & Hannig 2010). It was discovered in a cave on a beach at Funchal, Madeira, and in logs of the laurisilva.

Remarks

The recorded distribution of C. britannicus in Europe is quite strange. Until recently, with the exception of Portugal, there were no records from the western part of the mainland. Recently, it has been found in seminatural habitats in NW Spain and again in Portugal ( Read 2007). As it is necessary to dissect adult males to identify the species it may have been overlooked in France, Belgium, Luxemburg and Switzerland; however, much field work has been undertaken in these countries by expert myriapodologists who have not found it. It may be that C. britannicus is essentially a Lusitanian or strictly Atlantic species – the west of France is very poorly known – which has become anthropochorous and a successful pioneer elsewhere, as witnessed by its fairly cosmopolitan distribution.