Millipedes Made Easy Milli-PEET


Key to Millipede Orders

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


Continue to Identification Tables>>
<<Back to Millipedes Made Easy

Project Summary
Millipedes Made Easy
Introduction to Millipedes
Teacher Resources
Body Organization
Key to Millipede Orders
Identification Tables
Glossary
Products and Tools
Publications
Databases
People
Links




Home | Project Summary | Millipedes Made Easy | Products and Tools
Publications | Databases | People | Links

© 2007 The Field Museum, All Rights Reserved
1400 S. Lake Shore Dr. Chicago, IL 60605-2496
312.922.9410

Copyright Information | Linking Policy


Contact: Petra Sierwald
Technical Support: webmaster@fieldmuseum.org