Study of relatedness of populations of introduced species of millipedes (Class Diplopoda) in the family Julidae

Based on colonial era shipping records and anecdotal evidence it has been proposed that some millipede species in the family Julidae (class Diplopoda) were introduced from northern Europe in to the eastern United States. This hypothesis predicts there will be higher genetic diversity within populations of a species from Europe versus populations in the U.S. Millipedes were collected in the eastern U.S. and Europe and identified to species. The goal of this project is to study the dispersal patterns of these millipedes using genetic data in order to understand their routes of dispersal within the United States and their locality of origin. Specimens of Cylindroiulus caeruleocinctus found in several localities were subject to DNA extraction. Mitochondrial gene sequences were first analyzed and found to have little variability. The development of microsatellite markers at several loci is underway in hopes of using this data to evaluate relatedness between individuals.