Book review: Gerlach J, Marusik Y (Eds) (2010) Arachnida and Myriapoda of the Seychelles islands. Siri Scientific Press, 435 pp.

The Seychelles islands are located in the Indian Ocean, some 1,500 kilometres east of Africa and northeast of the island of Madagascar. They are particularly interesting from a biogeographical perspective, with ancient affinities to Africa and Asia, recent colonizing species from the Indo-Pacific and modern introductions. Until recently, relatively little was known about the biodiversity of these islands. However, this has changed through the publication of a series of monographs on the Seychelles fauna, presenting the latest information on all the terrestrial and freshwater animals of the islands. In this volume on the Arachnida and Myriapoda of the Seychelles islands, 14 expert scientists from 11 different countries have provided contributions that cover all 433 species of spiders, scorpions, mites, centipedes, millipedes and related groups currently recorded from the islands, including systematic keys, diagnostic illustrations and descriptions for most species, in addition to distribution records. The volume opens with a brief history of arachnid and myriapod collecting in the Seychelles islands followed by summary data for the numbers of indigenous, endemic and introduced species for all the orders covered and a brief classification scheme for the Arachnida. The following chapters cover the various different orders as follows: Araneae (M.I. Saaristo [deceased], 300 pp., 216 species), Amblypygi (P. Weygoldt, 5 pp.), Opiliones (J. Gerlach, 8 pp.), Scorpiones (L. Prendini, 10 pp.), the smaller ZooKeys 182: 109–110 (2012)