Blaniulus guttulatus (Fabricius, 1798)

Kime, Richard Desmond & Enghoff, Henrik, 2017, Atlas of European millipedes 2: Order Julida (Class Diplopoda), European Journal of Taxonomy 346, pp. 1-299 : 27-28

17. Blaniulus guttulatus (Fabricius, 1798)

Julus guttulatus Fabricius, 1798 .

Blaniulus guttulatus (Bosc, 1792) auct.

Iulus pulchellus Leach, 1814 .

Distribution

AT, BE, BG, CH, CZ, DE, DK-DEN, EE, ES-CNY, ES-SPA, FI, FR-FRA, GB-CI, GB-GRB, GB-NI, HU, IE, IS, IT-ITA, IT-SI, LT, LU, LV, NL, NO-NOR, PL, PT-POR, PT-AZO, PT-MDR, RO, RU-KGD, RU-RUC, RU-RUW, SE, SK, UA. Most of Europe north of the Mediterranean zone, synanthropic and widely introduced. – Also introduced into Canada, USA, St. Helena, Tristan da Cunha and Norfolk Island.

Habitat

Sometimes found “wild” in forest litter and topsoil, e.g., deciduous forest on limestone. Research in Belgium ( Kime et al. 1992) showed that all the specimens at such sites were found in soils with mull humus, about half of them being calcic mulls.

Generally on heavy loam soils, as in Britain, where Blower (1985) associated it with good arable loams and found it infrequently in base-deficient soils. The only Bulgarian record was from Pinus sylvestris and Quercus petraea forest (Vagalinski & Stoev 2007). Blaniulus guttulatus is strongly associated with cultivation, especially on ground with compost and surface refuse ( Breny & Biernaux 1966). It occurs

in farmland, gardens, parks, orchards, colliery spoil heaps and waste ground, associated with organic matter and it often occurs in very large populations, also in caves.

Remarks

The genus Blaniulus being Atlanto-Mediterranean, it is possible that B. guttulatus is native to woodland on base-rich soils in western Europe. It has received much attention as an agricultural pest. A detailed study with respect to its behaviour and invasion of crops was made by Biernaux (1968); see also Pierrard & Biernaux (1974). Brookes & Willoughby (1978) studied the general ecology and life history of the species.