Trichopetalidae Verhoeff 1914

Family Trichopetalidae Verhoeff, 1914

Trichopetalinae Verhoeff, 1914:347.

Trichopetalidae Verhoeff, 1932:485. Hoffman, 1961:262; 1999:233 (list). Shear, 1972:274.

Type genus: Trichopetalum Harger 1872.

Included genera: Trichopetalum Harger 1872, Scoterpes Cope 1872, Trigenotyla Causey 1951, Mexiterpes Causey 1963, Causeyella n. gen., Nannopetalum n. gen. Diagnosis: A family of Cleidogonoidea distinct in the modification of the ninth legs of males­­reduction of the telopodite to a single fused article; great development of the segmental setae; and in the (usual) presence of a strong fimbriate branch on the anterior gonopod.

Distribution: North America, from Newfoundland west to Wisconsin and south to Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas and Oklahoma (not present on the coastal plain from Virginia to Georgia or the Gulf Coastal Plain), highlands of northeastern and central Mexico.

Discussion: Causey (1959) established a tribe Scoterpini (recte: Scoterpetini) to include the genera Scoterpes and Trigenotyla; this was missed by Hoffman in his monumental Checklist of the Millipeds of North and Middle America (1999), although Causey’s paper appears in his bibliography. Otherwise no division of the family into subordinate family­level taxa has been made. Causey considered trichopetalids to be a subfamily of Conotylidae (see Introduction, above); had she recognized the family Trichopetalidae as raised to that status by Verhoeff in 1932, she undoubtedly would have considered her tribe to be a subfamily. However, before deciding the validity of any subfamilial or tribal grouping of the trichopetalids, I would prefer to complete my work on the large genera Trichopetalum and Scoterpes, to be published in a subsequent part.