ATLAS OF THE MILLIPEDES (DIPLOPODA) OF BRITAIN AND IRELAND by Paul Lee. Published by Pensoft Publishers, Sofia-Moscow, 2006. EURO 32.00. 216pp, colour photos, hardback.
ISBN 978-954-642-277-4 (available on-line from www.pensoft.net)

The millipedes are one of several groups of ‘creepy-crawlies’ that spend their lives munching their way through soil and leaf litter or creeping around under loose bark. As scavengers, they play a major role in nature’s recycling department. Most of us see them only rarely and even fewer of us take any notice of them, but Paul Lee, well known to members of the Suffolk Naturalists’ Society and other wildlife organisations, has been on their track for many years and has put together this very comprehensive and well-written account of the ecology and distribution of all 62 species known to occur in the British Isles.

A brief introduction to the group, technically known as the Diplopoda, includes information on the animals’ life histories and methods of collecting them. This is followed by an interesting history of millipede recording in Britain and Ireland, contributed by Paul Harding. A full check list then precedes the accounts of individual species, which draw together information from some 47,000 records gathered by members of the British Myriapod and Isopod Study Group over a period of 33 years! These accounts describe the ecological preferences of the species in fine detail and also provide information on their life histories. Each account is accompanied by a full-page map showing the distribution of the species within the British Isles, and there is also a good deal of information on the continental distribution. Some of the species are illustrated with fine photographs by Paul Richards and the late Steve Hopkin but, with no indication of size, we are left wondering how large or small these creatures are.

This book was never intended as an identification guide and, in common with similar atlases, it includes no keys, although up-to-date keys are available from the author. I do think, however, that a brief description of the main millipede groups would have made the book more useful for the general naturalist: the introduction mentions the millipedes’ ‘fascinating range of body form’, but unfortunately gives no examples. Nevertheless, the book is a good read and, with a very full bibliography, it will be a useful tool for both professional ecologists and amateur naturalists.