Millipeds (Arthropoda: Diplopoda) of the Ark-La-Tex. I. New Distributional and State Records for Seven Counties of the West Gulf Coastal Plain of Arkansas

Unlike the Diplopoda of the Ozark Mountains region of north Arkansas, the millipeds of the West Gulf Coastal Plain of the state are poorly known. During the winter months of 2001-2002, we collected millipeds in four counties (Hempstead, Lafayette, Little River, and Miller) of southwest Arkansas and three counties (Columbia, Nevada, and Ouachita) of south Arkansas. We found the following species/subspecies Eurymerodesmus dubuis and Pseudopolydesmus pinetorum from Hempstead County; E. birdi birdi, E. mundus, Oxidus gracilis, and Pseudopolydesmus ? minor from Lafayette County; Aniulus (Hakiulus) diversifrons diversifrons, P. pinetorum, and a possible new species of Tiganogona in Little River County; Abacion ? texense, E. Mundus, 0. gracilis, P. pinetorum, Thrinaxoria lampra, and a new species of Aniulus (Hakiulus) from Miller County; Auturus louisianus louisianus, E. dubuis, Cambala minor, O. gracilis, P. pinetorum, and a female xystodesmid of the tribe Pachydesmini from Columbia County; Virgoiulus minutus, C. minor, P. pinetorum, and A. l. louisianus from Nevada County; and P. pinetorum, Eurymerodesmus sp., Narceus americanus, and C. minor from Ouachita County. A new state record is documented for T. lampra from Miller County, and the finding of V. minutus in Miller and Nevada counties represents the southwesternmost distributional records for the genus and species. To our knowledge, all millipeds reported herein for Little River County are the first ever documented for that county, including a potentially new species of Tiganogona, a genus known previously from Carroll, Clay, Sebastian, and Washington counties, Arkansas, Lincoln Parish, Louisiana, and more distant locales in Missouri and Indiana