Abstract

Knowledge of the montane diplopod fauna of East Africa dates back only to the collections made by Sjoestedt on Mount Kilimanjaro in 1905–6 and described by Attems in 1909. Little was added to that beginning until the onset of explorations since about 1964 by personnel from the universities of Dar es Salaam and Copenhagen. Since the great majority of species discovered in the Tanzanian Eastern Arc mountains are undescribed endemics, it is not possible to present a comprehensive chorographic analysis. Only the species of Oxydesmidae have been worked out (Hoffman, 1990) for the entire region, and of the various geographic units only the fauna of the East Usambaras is at all well known. Nonetheless it is possible to indicate some generalities of interest: (i) with few exceptions most of the genera occurring in these mountains are endemic, so that lines of affinity with other regions must be sought at the level of tribe or higher; (ii) in most cases such genera appear to be the result of local derivation from formerly widespread ancestral stocks; (iii) the postglacial condensation of montane forest to higher mountains surrounded by seasonally arid savanna or scrub forest has resulted in profuse local speciation on individual ranges or close clusters, involving, so far as can be deduced, both sympatric and allopatric isolating mechanisms. These constellations of local species may thus be classified as neoendemics in the East African fauna.