
Belongs within: Diplopoda.
The Leptodesmidae is a group of millipedes that is most diverse in the Americas.
Characters (from Brues et al. 1954): Males with first pair of legs on seventh somite only modified into gonopods; coxae of gonopods large, close together, connected by a narrow band, each with a prominent curved horn-shaped process; femur distinctly separated from tibia by a constriction, with a large process that is often longer than tibia and tarsus together.
<==Leptodesmidae |--Chondrodesmoides Kraus 1955K55 | `--*C. koepckei Kraus 1955K55 |--ProletusK55 | |--P. orites (Chamberlin 1941) [=*Eucampesmus orites]K55 | `--P. tocachensis Kraus 1955K55 |--Alocodesmus Silvestri 1896K54 | |--A. aporus Kraus 1954K54 | |--A. dentatusK54 | |--A. olivaceus Kraus 1954K54 | |--A. planusK54 | `--A. pseudolivaceus Kraus 1954K54 `--Leptodesmus Saussure 1859K54 | i. s.: L. gounelleiK54 | L. soleadinusK54 |--L. (Leptodesmus) taulisensis Kraus 1954K54 |--L. (Desmoleptus)K54 | |--L. (*D.) peruanusK54 | |--L. (D.) ornatus Kraus 1954K54 | `--L. (D.) similis Kraus 1954K54 |--L. (Perudesmus)K54 | |--L. (P.) nodosus Kraus 1954K54 | `--L. (P.) titschackiK54 `--L. (Pseudoleptodesmus)K54 |--L. (P.) andinus Kraus 1954K54 `--L. (P.) bivittatus Kraus 1954K54
*Type species of generic name indicated
References
Brues, C. T., A. L. Melander & F. M. Carpenter. 1954. Classification of insects: keys to the living and extinct families of insects, and to the living families of other terrestrial arthropods. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College 108.
[K54] Kraus, O. 1954. Myriapoden aus Peru, II. Senckenbergiana Biologica 35: 17–55.
[K55] Kraus, O. 1955. Myriapoden aus Peru, III. Senckenbergiana Biologica 36 (3–4): 173–200.