Trachysphaera is a genus of dwarf pill millipedes in the order Glomerida. Just over 30 species are known, making it the third most species-rich genus of Glomerida. Trachysphaera species are patchily distributed throughout Europe and western Asia, extending from Spain to Caucasia. Members of this genus are tiny, with modified appearances resembling that of calcareous stones.
Trachysphaera is a genus of dwarf pill millipedes in the order Glomerida. Just over 30 species are known, making it the third most species-rich genus of Glomerida. Trachysphaera species are patchily distributed throughout Europe and western Asia, extending from Spain to Caucasia. Members of this genus are tiny, with modified appearances resembling that of calcareous stones.
== Description == Trachysphaera is a genus within the order Glomerida that is known for its distinctive morphology. The species belonging to Trachysphaera exhibit a whitish coloration and are generally small, with adult individuals measuring no more than 5 mm in length. One of the most striking characteristics of this genus is the presence of transverse ribs located in the posterior regions of the tergites. These ribs are adorned with unique coagulated structures that take the form of tubercles, papillae, and rods. Trachysphaera is one of the few glomerid genera possessing a deep lateral pit on both sides of the thoracic shield. These pits are notable features, although their function is currently unknown.
Discovered by embedding cosine similarity (sentence-transformers MiniLM, 384-dim).