''Orthomorpha'' is a genus of

millipede Millipedes are a group of arthropods that are characterised by having two pairs of jointed legs on most body segments; they are known scientifically as the class Diplopoda, the name derived from this feature. Each double-legged segment is a re ...

s in the family

Paradoxosomatidae Paradoxosomatidae, the only family in the suborder Paradoxosomatidea (also known as Strongylosomatidea), is a family of flat-backed millipedes in the order Polydesmida. Containing nearly 200 genera and 975 species , it is one of the largest fa ...

containing approximately 50 species distributed in

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

Description

Species of ''Orthomorpha'' possess 20 body segments and range from 15–50 mm long as adults. They range from 1.1–3.1 mm in body width, with prominent paranota (lateral keels) extending the width to 1.5–6.7 mm. Base coloration varies from brown to black, with brightly colored paranota and markings in various shades of yellow, orange, and brown, which becomes fainter in alcohol-preserved specimens. Some species have prominent bumps or "tubercles" on their dorsal metatergal segments.

Distribution

''Orthomorpha'' species range from

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

in the west, through the entire

Indochinese Peninsula Mainland Southeast Asia, also known as the Indochinese Peninsula or Indochina, is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the west an ...

, to

Lombok Lombok is an island in West Nusa Tenggara province, Indonesia. It forms part of the chain of the Lesser Sunda Islands, with the Lombok Strait separating it from Bali to the west and the Alas Strait between it and Sumbawa to the east. It is ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. The species '' O. coarctata'', (also known as '' Asiomorpha coarctata'') has been widely introduced by humans in tropics around the world.Hoffman, R. (1999). Checklist of the millipeds of North and Middle America. Virginia Museum of Natural History Special Publications 8, 1–553.

Species

The genus was revised by Likhitrakarn, Golovatch & Panha in 2011, who described several new species and assigned two to the new genus ''Orthomorphoides'', yielding a total of 51 named species of ''Orthomorpha''. Three more species from Laos were described in 2014.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q6442719 Polydesmida Millipedes of Asia Taxa named by Charles Harvey Bollman Millipede genera