Autoři: Pavel KOCOUREK, Karel TAJOVSKÝ, Petr DOLEJŠ

Ilustrace Pavel KOCOUREK

Publikace je populárně-vědecká příručka, určená širší veřejnosti a ochráncům přírody, ale i dětem je první takovou komplexní příručkou vycházející v Česku. Pomůže při určování živočichů a přibližuje málo známé zkušenosti z jejich způsobu života. Přehled všech 77 druhů mnohonožek v současné době známých z území České republiky doplněn jejich barevnými vyobrazeními, kresbami důležitých určovacích znaků a rovněž údaji o jejich ekologii a rozšíření. Publikace obsahuje rovněž určovací klíč českých mnohonožek.

Important information about the Czech millipedes, namely about their distribution, new records and diagnostic characters, are scattered among many individual scientific papers. Recently published articles are often available on the Internet, however, older papers must be searched in libraries. The last complex monograph about Czech millipedes was published more than 60 years ago. Current knowledge of their distribution as well as increasing number of millipede species recorded in the Czech Republic call for a new monograph. This atlas contains colour images, diagnostic characters and notes on ecology and distribution of all 77 millipede species actually known from the Czech Republic. Determination key, including firgures of main diagnostic characters, enable the readers to try to identify Czech millipede species.

Characterization of each of the six millipede orders is accompanied by a plate composed of pictures made by the scanning electron microscope. Description of each species is accompanied by images of the animals, information about their typical biotopes and a distribution map (based on records from 1960-2016). Distribution of individual species in the Czech Republic is supplemented by their occurrence in Europe based on information from the Fauna Europaea database. Despite dealing with recent animals, the book contains also a chapter about peleontological records of myriapods, namely those known from our territory, form the carboniferous black-coal basin in Nýřany by Plzeň. Historical overview presents importatnt scientists wo contributed to the knowledge of millipedes in the Czech Republic.

The presented atlas is a popularising book intended for large public, nature enthusiasts, conservationists, students as well as children. It does not contain all scientific aspoects of diplopodology. Instead, in combines basic facts from the most important areas of a millipede life. Thus, this book is the first such structured manual published in the Czech Republic.