







Currently, the extant species of the class Diplopoda are placed in 16 orders: Penicillata, Glomerida, Glomeridesmida, Sphaerotheriida, Platydesmida, Polyzoniida, Siphonocryptida, Siphonophorida, Stemmiulida, Chordeumatida, Polydesmida, Callipodida, Spirobolida, Spirostreptida, Julida and Siphoniulida.



We hope to make millipede identification accessible to many by providing an identification key to the orders in several languages. The key was constructed with ease of use in mind. We tried to use characters that are easy to recognize and will allow non-millipede specialists to identify specimens to order both quickly and correctly. Several "couplets' are not dichotomous, but present multiple choices in which discrete, mutually exclusive alternative characters are listed. In this case as in dichotomous couplets, only one of the choices will apply to any organism being taken through the key. After you have become familiar with the identifying features, you may often just use the flow chart at the end of the Identification Key to identify a millipede to order.



Once you have identified your specimen to order, turn to the Identification Tables for verification and further identification of your specimens.



Below is a key to the Millipede Orders in many languages, available as downloadable pdf files. We urge you to read the INTRODUCTION TO MILLIPEDES on this web site. If you are willing to translate the Key to Orders into a language we do not yet have represented here, please contact Petra Sierwald (psierwald@fieldmuseum.org). Please click on the acrobat icon below:



Language



Translator



Bytes Arabic Dr. Karim Nasher (Yemen) 596 KB Bulgarian Dr. Pavel Stoev (Bulgaria) 724 KB Burmese Daw Su Su (Myanmar) 468 KB Chinese Chao-Chun (Taiwan) 628 KB English 528 KB French Lucienne Wilmé (France) 516 KB German Thomas Wesener (Germany) 524 KB Hungarian Dr. Zoltán Korsós (Hungary) 572 KB Indonesian Dr. Dyoko Iskandar (Indonesia) 504 KB Polish Dr. Jolanta Wytwer (Poland) 636 KB Portuguese Dr. Cristina Rheims (Brazil) 856 KB Thai Dr. Somsak Panha (Thailand) 544 KB Spanish (Español) Julian Bueno-Villegas (México) 572 KB









