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Arthropods, 2019, 8(4): 137-142
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Article

Size dimorphism in six juliform millipedes

Mark Cooper
School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2050, South Africa

Received 15 January 2019;Accepted 6 March 2019;Published 1 December 2019
IAEES

Abstract
Sexual Size Dimorphism (SSD) in the diplopod genera Bicoxidens, Doratogonus, Harpagophora, Julomorpha and Orthoporoides has length, width and rings as the main components of interspecific variation. Interspecific variation in size observed in B. bricki Schubart, 1966, D. annulipes Carl, 1917, H. spirobolina (Karsch, 1881), J. hilaris Attems, 1928, J. panda (Attems, 1928) and O. tabulinus (Attems, 1914) and the data sets were tested for normality. Male lengths differed from female lengths in all except J. hilaris which had different widths. Juliform millipedes appear to have decreased in size over evolutionary time and this study presents an interesting finding showing sexual dimorphism based on length in larger species and sexual dimorphism based on width in the smaller species. The reason for this has to do with the constraints imposed through a cylindrical body form which can be changed more powerfully through reducing width rather than length.

Keywords diplopod;horizontal;length;tergite.

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