Myriapods are the only major zoological group for which a modern encyclopedic treatment has never been produced. In particular, this was the single major gap in the largest zoological treatise of the XIX century (Grassé’s Traité de Zoologie), whose publication has recently been stopped. The two volumes of “The Myriapoda” fill that gap with an updated treatment in the English language. Volume II deals with the Diplopoda or millipedes. As in the previous volume, the treatment is articulated in chapters dealing with external and internal morphology, physiology, reproduction, development, distribution, ecology, phylogeny and taxonomy. All currently recognized suprageneric taxa and a very large selection of the genera are considered. All groups and features are extensively illustrated by line drawings and micrographs and living specimens of representative species of the main groups are presented in color photographs.

This volume contains three papers on the taxonomy of Diplopoda. The first, larger paper revises the small Oriental family Haplodesmidae, Polydesmoidea, Polydesmida, showing it to be synonymous with Doratodesmidae. Six new species are described, an old one is redescribed, numerous new synonymies and diagnoses are proposed, all six genera recognized as valid a redefined and keyed, as well as all their known constituent species. The second paper is devoted to descriptions of a new aberrant genus and two new species of Dalodesmidae, Dalodesmidea, Polydesmida from Tasmania, Australia. The third article provides the description of a new, northernmost species of a large southern African genus of Spirostreptidae, Spirostreptida from Zumbabwe.

This is the second issue of ZooKeys specially devoted to millipede taxonomy, to appear just a couple of months since the publication of the first issue. It also contains three papers, all beautifully and richly illustrated. The first paper again focuses on the family Haplodesmidae (Polydesmida), this time presenting a review of the rather speciose genus Eutrichodesmus which currently contains 24 species, including nine new, mainly cavernicolous ones from China, Vietnam, Laos and Indonesia. The second contribution provides a review of the large Euro-Mediterranean genus Glomeris in North Africa, with 11 nominate species currently known from the coastal regions of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Lybia. Three new species are described therein, including two cavernicoles, as well as a number of new synonymies established. The third paper revives and reviews Agathodesmus (Haplodesmidae), a small, previously dubious genus now containing four species, including one new from Australia.

To some potential readers of this book the description of Biological System atics as an art may seem outdated and frankly wrong. For most people art is subjective and unconstrained by universal laws. While one picture, play or poem may be internally consistent comparison between different art products is meaningless except by way of the individual artists. On the other hand modern Biological Systematics - particularly phenetics and cladistics - is offered as objective and ultimately governed by universal laws. This implies that classifications of different groups of organisms, being the products of systematics, should be comparable irrespective of authorship. Throughout this book Minelli justifies his title by developing the theme that biological classifications are, in fact, very unequal in their expressions of the pattern and processes of the natural world. Specialists are imbibed with their own groups and tend to establish a consensus of what constitutes a species or a genus, or whether it should be desirable to recognize sub species, cultivars etc. Ornithologists freely recognize subspecies and rarely do bird genera contain more than 10 species. On the other hand some coleopterists and botanists work with genera with over 1500 species. This asymmetry may reflect a biological reality; it may express a working practicality, or simply an historical artefact (older erected genera often contain more species). Rarely are these phenomena questioned.

In this volume, the taxonomy of the diplopod order Polydesmida is extended to three poorly documented areas. A new cave species is described from the Crimea (Ukraine), five new species from Taiwan and seven new species from eastern Australia.