Proteroiulus fuscus

43. Proteroiulus fuscus (Am Stein, 1857)

Blaniulus fuscus Am Stein, 1857.

Nopoiulus pulchellus auct., not C.L. Koch, 1838.

Nopoiulus palmatus coelebs Verhoeff, 1907.

AT, BE, BG, BY, CH, CZ, DE, DK-DEN, DK-FOR, EE, ES-CAN, FI, FR-FRA, GB-CI, GB-GRB, GB- NI, HU, IE, IS, IT-ITA, IT-SI, LT, LU, LV, NL, NO-NOR, PL, PT-AZO, PT-MDR, RU-KGD, RU-RUC, RU-RUE, RU-RUN, RU-RUW, RU-RUS, SE, SK, UA. Northern, Eastern and Central Europe. – Also introduced into Canada, USA, South Africa and St. Helena.

Subcorticolous on many kinds of trees, both deciduous and coniferous, for most of its life cycle and found in a wide variety of wooded biotopes (forest tundra, taiga, mixed and deciduous forests and forest-steppe). It is to be found in leaf litter and in the soil, seasonally. Trapping on trees and on the ground indicates that it tends to disperse in autumn and winter, at least in the more temperate areas. It is associated with non-calcareous soils and peaty soils in particular (Tajovský 1998; Lee 2006).

It is sometimes the only millipede found in very dry pinewoods on sand.

South of about 48° N it is generally only found in mountainous terrain, for instance, in Switzerland at altitudes of between 400 m and 1525 m (Pedroli-Christen 1993).

A hardy species, very common in northern Europe, declining southwards, absent from much of France, Iberia, Italy and the Balkans. Found further north than any other species of millipede, in the foresttundra of the Yamal Peninsula. Males are very rare, and P. fuscus is regarded as a purely parthenogenetic species (Enghoff 1978). The record from the Faeroe Islands is based on a juvenile and hence doubtful (Meidell & Solhøy 1990).