Cylindroiulus latestriatus

150. Cylindroiulus latestriatus (Curtis, 1845)

Julus latestriatus Curtis, 1845.

Julus luscus Meinert, 1868.

Cylindroiulus frisius Verhoeff, 1891.

Cylindroiulus owenii Bollman, 1887.

Iulus parisiorum miraculus Brölemann & Verhoeff, 1896.

BE, BY, CH, CZ, DE, DK-DEN, DK-FOR, EE, ES-CNY, ES-SPA, FI, FR-FRA, GB-CI, GB-GRB, GB-NI, HU, IE, LT, LV, NL, NO-NOR, PL, PT-AZO, PT-POR, RO, RU-KGD, RU-RUC, RU-RUW, SE, SK, UA. Extended Atlantic. – Also widely introduced in the Afrotropical, Australian, Palaearctic, Nearctic and Oriental regions. Found on several remote islands including Tristan da Cunha, Saint Paul and Easter Island.

Among the roots of halophytes on fixed coastal dunes and in grassland on a sandy substrate; inland strongly associated with sandy areas, common on some heaths, has been found in the deciduous litter of woodland on light soils, but more usually synanthropic. Abundant in some horticultural areas and found often in urban gardens.

This remarkable species is distributed along the Atlantic and North Sea coasts from Macaronesia and Portugal to Norway and in the Baltic reaches Finland and Russia. It becomes increasingly synanthropic into the Gulf of Bothnia and the Gulf of Finland, similarly inland on the Continent where there are numerous scattered records eastwards to Russia and the Ukraine. From Europe C. latestriatus has spread as far as South Africa, North, Central and South America, even to remote places such as St. Paul Island in the Antarctic and Easter Island in the Pacific Ocean, showing unusual pioneering abilities. It is perhaps the most widely distributed millipede on Earth. This may be correlated with its unusually short life cycle: reproduction may take place already in the second year of life (Voigtländer 1996).