The Millipeds of Hispaniola, With Descriptions of a New Family, New Genera, and New Species (Classic Reprint) - Hardcover

Harold Frederick Loomis

9780656470600: The Millipeds of Hispaniola, With Descriptions of a New Family, New Genera, and New Species (Classic Reprint)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0656470607 ISBN 13: 9780656470600

Publisher: Forgotten Books, 2020

Excerpt from The Millipeds of Hispaniola, With Descriptions of a New Family, New Genera, and New Species

N o truly comprehensive collection of millipeds ever has been made in the island of Hispaniola, nor has the island been investigated by collectors primarily interested in these creatures, and consequently the milliped fauna is very poorly known. Until visited in 1912 by Dr. Wm. M. Mann, no systematic collecting had been done, and only nine species were reported from the entire island. The Mann collection included 31 species, of which 25 were described as new by R. V. Cham berlin,1 and was made entirely in the Republic of Haiti, centering about port-au-prince, with journeys to Jacmel on the south coast, and to Cape Haitien on the north coast.

A large number of millipeds was accumulated by Dr. 0. F. Cook and the writer on various trips to the island, extending from 1917 to 1934, nearly all the territory explored being in the Republic of Haiti and not varying greatly from that visited by Dr. Mann, hence much of the terminal portion of the Southern and of the Northern peninsula, and the eastern frontier of the Republic, was not searched for milli peds. This collection and two others from the Museum of Compara tive Zoology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, form the basis of this paper. Both of these latter collections were of particular interest as the material they contained came mainly from territory not previously collected in and many new forms were included. The first of the collections was made in Haiti and Santo Domingo by Dr. T. Barbour and his family, while guests of Mr. Allison V. Armour on his Research Yacht Utowana, from March to May, 1934. The second collec tion came from the mountain ranges of La Selle and La Hotte in Southern Haiti, and was made by Dr. P. J. Darlington in the autumn of 1934.

The rather definite localization of the species, as shown by Dr. Mann's collection and those here studied, gives assurance of a considerable number of additional forms being found in the Republic of Haiti, and since Santo Domingo, is almost wholly unexplored, a still greater number of species undoubtedly await discovery there. With these new forms in prospect it may be predicted that the island of Hispaniola probably contains as many or more species of millipeds than any other area of like size, at least in the Western Hemisphere.

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