Leptoiulus trilineatus (C.L. Koch, 1847)

Kime, Richard Desmond & Enghoff, Henrik, 2017, Atlas of European millipedes 2: Order Julida (Class Diplopoda), European Journal of Taxonomy 346, pp. 1-299 : 114

352. Leptoiulus trilineatus (C.L. Koch, 1847)

Julus trilineatus C.L. Koch, 1847 .

Julus silvivagus Verhoeff, 1898 .

Distribution

AL, AT, BA, BG, CH?, GR-GRC, HR, IT-ITA, MK, MN, RO, SB, SI, TR-TUE. Southern Alps, largely Balkan, and Transadriatic.

Habitat

A widely distributed Balkan species found from sea level up to well above 2000 m in the Balkan Mountains – 2150 m on Durmitor ( Beron 2008), 2200–2300 m in the Rila Mountains (Vagalinski & Stoev 2007). Reported from woodland dominated by Fagus sylvatica , several species of Quercus , Carpinus betulus , C. orientalis , Abies and Pinus spp. Also in open habitats (meadows and alpine grasslands). Collected from leaf litter, under stones and bark, on a limestone slope, between Corylus, Rubus and Ruscus .

Troglophile, for instance caves in the Italian province of Puglia – Strasser (1965) argues that it was one of the Balkan species which was able to cross the Adriatic when the sea level was much lower than today, before the breaching of the Straits of Gibraltar.

Remarks

Widespread and common from the southern Alps to Greece and Turkey. There are also records from Piedmont and Liguria (NW Italy), e.g., by Verhoeff (1932a), but we are in doubt about these (the quite similar L. hospitelli occurs in the same area) and have omitted them from the map. We have also omitted some records from Apulia and Calabria (S Italy) referred by Strasser (1970), as these probably concern other species. There have been no records of this species from Switzerland since Verhoeff (1913) collected it near Lugano, although the site was revisited ( Pedroli-Christen 1993).