''Apheloria'' is a
genus
Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...
of
flat-backed millipede
Polydesmida (from the Greek language, Greek ''poly'' "many" and ''desmos'' "bond") is the largest order (biology), order of millipedes, with more than 5,000 species, including all the millipedes reported to produce hydrogen cyanide (HCN). This or ...
s in the family
Xystodesmidae, occurring in the central and southeastern United States, and ranging as far north as southern Quebec, Canada.
[Hoffman, Richard L. 1999. Checklist of the millipeds of North and Middle America. Virginia Museum of Natural History Special Publications 8, pp. 293-296][Marek, Paul; Tanabe, Tsutomu; Sierwald, Petra (2014]
''A Species Catalog of the Millipede Family Xystodesmidae (Diplopoda: Polydesmida)''.
Special Publication 17. Virginia Museum of Natural History. pp. 7-9 They are
aposematically colored in black and contrasting reds and yellows, and some species in the Appalachian Mountains resemble species of ''
Brachoria'' where they co-occur, a phenomenon known as
Müllerian mimicry
Müllerian mimicry is a natural phenomenon in which two or more well-defended species, often foul-tasting and sharing common predators, have come to mimicry, mimic each other's honest signal, honest aposematism, warning signals, to their mutuali ...
.
Species
These species belong to the genus ''Apheloria'':
[
* '' Apheloria luminosa'' Kenyon, 1893
* '' Apheloria montana'' (Bollman, 1887)
* '' Apheloria montezumae'' (Attems, 1899)
* '' Apheloria polychroma'' Marek, Means & Hennen, 2018
* '' Apheloria tigana'' Chamberlin, 1939
* '' Apheloria virginiensis'' (Drury, 1770)
* '' Apheloria whiteheadi'' (Shelley, 1986)
Apheloria montana - inat 197904282.jpg, ''Apheloria montana'', North Carolina
Apheloria polychroma - inat 278228104.jpg, ''Apheloria polychroma'', Tennessee
Apheloria tigana - inat 367707558.jpg, ''Apheloria tigana'', Indiana
]
References
Polydesmida
Millipedes of North America
Millipede genera
{{Millipede-stub