Migration and Population Outbreaks of Millipedes in the Coffee Plantations, Region of Alto Paranaiba, Mg, Brazil

Cloudsley-Thompson (1949) reported that individuals of Fontaria virginensis spread over an area of 75 acres in West Virginia (USA) farms in such large numbers that cattle were unable to graze and workers were nauseated by the odor exhaled by dead diplopods. At night and on cloudy days they moved in large numbers; most of them (a number estimated at 65 million animals) were killed by the heat of the sun. Niijima e Shinohara (1988), in turn, reported that in Hungary in 1878, in France in 1900, and in Germany in 1906 and 1938, railroad tracks had to be covered with sand for train wheels to be able to adhere to them. In the same article, they pointed out that in Japan the millipede Parafontaria laminata became known by interrupting railroad traffic and emphasized that the population explosions of this millipede occurred at 7 to 8 year intervals and that most of the animals found were adults or sub-adults. This fact has Recebido em: 13/09/2002 HOLOS Environment, v.2 n.2, 2002 P.220-223