The luminous mountain millipedes

This week, we published a study documenting the rediscovery of the millipede Xystocheir bistipita, which turns out to be bioluminescent and a species of Motyxia, the Luminous mountain millipedes (Marek & Moore, 2015). A few folks have asked what the distribution looks like with these new data. Here’s an updated distribution of the genus including Motyxia bistipita (we transferred the species into Motyxia after determining it was more closely related to bioluminescent millipedes in the genus Motyxia). The distribution of Motyxia is overlaid on Level III USGS ecoregions.

• Marek, P.E. and W. Moore (2015) Discovery of a glowing millipede in California and the gradual evolution of bioluminescence in Diplopoda. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA. early edition [Open access]