Innovative approaches, interactive tools and modern imaging: Pushing boundaries in myriapod taxonomy

Morphology-based taxonomy is facing a continuous decline, and the lack in human and financial resources in one hand, faced with the desire of society to make an inventory of the world’s diversity, has created what is known today by the ‘taxonomic impediment’. This situation has forced taxonomists to seek for modern methods and different approaches, which could enhance species descriptions. Among these, the use of modern technologies and to embrace other disciplines of biosystematics in a more integrative approach has become vital for any taxonomic work. Further catalyzed by the relentless development of the open access, the dissemination of the taxonomic information has also tremendously improved.

In myriapodology, a few attempts have been made in this respect, ranging from using next generation molecular sequencing techniques to venturing in the vast world of cybertaxonomy. I briefly review some of the state-of-the-art innovative approaches in myriapodology, focusing on the cybertaxonomic applications and present 3D models of an undescribed millipede using X-ray micro tomography to discuss the potential of this technique in describing new species of millipedes and other organisms. I also present a few examples where a basic taxonomic work has led to answering more general questions related to the biology and development of millipedes.