Eight-year periodical outbreaks of the train millipede

Keiko Niijima; Momoka Nii; Jin Yoshimura

doi:10.1098/rsos.201399

Eight-year periodical outbreaks of the train millipede

R Soc Open Sci. 2021 Jan 13;8(1):201399. doi: 10.1098/rsos.201399. eCollection 2021 Jan.

Authors

Keiko Niijima¹, Momoka Nii², Jin Yoshimura^{2

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Affiliations

¹ Former Tama Forest Science Garden, Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, Hachioji, Tokyo 193-0843, Japan.
² Department of Mathematical and Systems Engineering, Shizuoka University, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka 432-8561, Japan.
³ Department of International Health and Medical Anthropology, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Nagasaki University, 1-12-4 Sakamoto, Nagasaki 852-8523, Japan.
⁴ Department of Biological Science, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Hachioji, Tokyo 192-0397, Japan.
⁵ University Museum, the University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.
⁶ Department of Environmental and Forest Biology, State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse, NY 13210, USA.
⁷ Marine Biosystems Research Center, Chiba University, 1 Uchiura, Kamogawa, Chiba 299-5502, Japan.

Abstract

Periodical cicadas are the only confirmed periodical animals with long life cycles. In Japan, however, 8-year periodicity had been suggested in a species of train millipedes that had frequently obstructed trains in the central mountainous region of Honshu, Japan. This species was identified as Parafontaria laminata armigera Verhoeff (Diplopoda: Xystodesmidae), which is endemic to Japan. We finally confirmed the 8-year periodicity of this millipede using detailed surveys of life histories over 8 years. Seven broods were recognized, with almost no overlaps in their distributions. We also report the historical outbreaks and train obstructions of this millipede during 1920-2016. This is the first confirmed case of periodical non-insect arthropods.

Keywords: life cycles; mass emergence; millipedes; periodical organisms; periodicity; train obstructions.

Associated data

figshare/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5250984