Pelmatojulus tectus (Cook, 1897)
Giant tri-coloured African millipede
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
Synonym/s: Pachybolus tectus Cook, 1897 (basionym)
Conservation Status
Last (and only) record: 1897 or prior (Fiemapong et al., 2018:404)
Rediscovered on: 27 January 2017 (Fiemapong et al., 2018:404)
Distribution & Habitat
Cameroon & Zanzibar (the latter is questionable)
"There remains the mystery of the type locality of Pachybolus tectus: Zanzibar. It appears unlikely that a large species should have gone unnoticed on Zanzibar for 120 years unless it has gone extinct. A more probable explanation would be that the holotype of P. tectus had been introduced from West Africa to Zanzibar by commerce, and even more probable one that the specimen was wrongly labelled."
(Fiemapong et al., 2018:410)
Biology & Ecology
Hypodigm
Media
References
Original scientific description:
Cook, O. F. (1897). New relatives of Spirobolus giganteus. Brandtia 18: 73-75.
Other references:
Cook, O. F. (1899). African Diplopoda of the genus Pachybolus. Proceedings of the United States National Museum 21: 657-666.
Enghoff, H. (2011). East African giant millipedes of the tribe Pachybolini (Diplopoda, Spirobolida, Pachybolidae), Zootaxa 2753: 1-41.
Fiemapong, Armand Richard Nzoko and Enghoff, Henrik. (2018). A giant African millipede re-discovered, re-located and re-classified after 120 years (Diplopoda, Spirobolida, Pachybolidae). Zootaxa 4527(3): 403-413. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4527.3.9
Hoffman, R. L. (1962). Studies on spiroboloid millipeds IV. Systematic and nomenclatorial notes on the family Pachybolidae. Revue Suisse de Zoologie 69: 759-783. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.part.75592
Mbenoun Massé, P. S. (2023). An annotated checklist of the Millipedes (Myriapoda Diplopoda) of Cameroon, with several new species and distribution records. Biodiversity Journal 14(2): 275-291.
Sierwald, P., Decker, P. and Spelda, J. (2025). MilliBase. Pelmatojulus tectus (Cook, 1897). Accessed at: https://www.millibase.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=1799607 on 2025-04-03
Weidner, H. (1960). Die entomologischen Sammlungen des zoologischen Staatsinstituts und zoologischen Museums Hamburg. III. Teil Chilopoda und Progoneata. Mitteilungen des hamburgischen zoologischen Museums und Instituts 58: 57-104.
Wesener, T., Enghoff, H. and Wägele, J.-W. (2008). Pachybolini—a tribe of giant Afrotropical millipedes. With arguments for monophyly and the description of a new genus from Madagascar (Diplopoda: Spirobolida: Pachybolidae). Invertebrate Systematics 22: 37-53. https://doi.org/10.1071/IS07008
https://www.speciesconservation.org/case-studies-projects/giant-tri-coloured-african-millipede/10258