A reclassification of the millipede superfamily Trichopolydesmoidea, with descriptions of two new species from the Aegean region (Diplopoda, Polydesmida)

Abstract. Two new species are described from caves in several Greek islands in the Aegean Sea: Galliocookia gracilis sp. n., a presumed troglobite from Rhodes, Dodecanese Islands, and Sphaeroparia simplex sp. n., likely a troglophile from Kithnos, Cyclades, and Chios, Eastern Sporades. These genera are assigned to the family Trichopolydesmidae Verhoeff, 1910. Because Sphaeroparia Attems, 1909, an Afrotropical genus, nicely bridges the gap, both morphologically and geographically, between the Euro-Mediterranean Trichopolydesmidae and the much more diverse, pantropical Fuhrmannodesmidae Brölemann, 1916, the latter family is considered as a new junior subjective synonym of the former, syn. n. Thus expanded, the family Trichopolydesmidae is rediagnosed and its position within the superfamily Trichopolydesmoidea refined. Because the families Mastigonodesmidae Attems, 1914, Macrosternodesmidae Brölemann, 1916 and Nearctodesmidae Chamberlin & Hoffman, 1950 are also formally synonymized with Trichopolydesmidae, syn. n., the Trichopolydesmoidea currently contains only two families, Trichopolydesmidae and Opisotretidae Hoffman, 1980.