Millipede diversity and abundance were analysed at sites lying between 250 and 650 meters above mean sea level in Alagar Hills of Eastern Ghats, Tamil Nadu, India. Millipede abundance and diversity peaked at midelevations influenced by favourable niche and food resources. Diversity of millipedes indicates the influence of local habitat and food resource availability. In the present study, millipede species, Harpaphe haydeniana, Xenobolus carnifex, Arthrosphaera magna, Aulacobolus newtoni, and Spinotarsus colosseus, are present at midelevation (450？MSL). Abundance of millipedes at 450？m elevation is due to moderate canopy and litter, which support understorey vegetation like herbs and shrubs. 1. Introduction Biodiversity offers several direct and indirect economic benefits to humankind [1]. The interest in diversity especially over the past few years has focused on how diversity influences ecosystems and ecological processes [2]. Ninety-five percent of experimental studies support a positive relationship between diversity and ecosystem functioning [3–5]. The biotic diversity tends to play a significant role by enriching the soil, maintaining water and climatic cycles, and converting waste materials into nutrients. Soil macrofauna makes an important contribution to soil fertility by promoting the stability and productivity of forest ecosystems, mainly due to their influence on soil process such as litter decomposition and nutrient dynamics [6]. Furthermore, elevation is merely a surrogate for a suite of biotic and abiotic factors that influence species richness [7]. Therefore, identifying ecologically meaningful causal factors is essential in order to explain variation in species richness along elevation gradients [8]. Millipedes belong to class Diplopoda, a highly diverse group of terrestrial organisms with over 12,000 described species and an estimated 80, 000 species yet to be described [9, 10]. Among soil Arthropods, millipedes act as primary destructors of plant debris and play a crucial role in soil formation processes. Many millipedes can also serve as indicators of environmental conditions and improve the structure content of organic matter and nutrient elements of soil [11, 12]. Gadagkar et al. [13] studied species richness and diversity of ant populations from different localities in Western Ghats, India. Diversity of forest litter-inhabiting ants along an elevation gradient in the Wayanad region of the Western Ghats is studied by Sabu et al. [14]. Bharti and Sharma [15] observed the diversity and abundance of ants along an elevational gradient
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