First record of the spirobolid Eucarlia hoffmani Golovatch & Korsós, 1992 (Diplopoda: Spirobolida: Pachybolidae) from the Maldives, Indian Ocean

The remote Maldivian archipelago in the Indian Ocean has a diverse invertebrate fauna both underwater and on land. While some terrestrial classes, e.g. spiders, orthopterans, or decapods, have thoroughly been investigated and described on these coralline islands, others have been completely neglected. Although millipedes (Diplopoda) are important detritivores in almost all terrestrial ecosystems, they have until now never been reported from the Maldivian islands. Here, we report the finding of Eucarlia hoffmani Golovatch & Korsós, 1992 on one atoll of the Maldivian archipelago. This species has so far only been recorded from a single atoll between Madagascar and the Seychelles (Farquhar atoll) and therefore be considered as “endangered” by the IUCN red list. Our record of E. hoffmani on the Maldives suggests that the distribution of E. hoffmani is larger than previously known and that this species might, therefore, be less susceptible to possible extinction than considered.