The Mersey Break: an unexplained faunal boundary on the north coast of Tasmania
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Published:1999
Robert Mesibov, 1999. "The Mersey Break: an unexplained faunal boundary on the north coast of Tasmania", The Other 99%: The Conservation and Biodiversity of Invertebrates, Winston Ponder, Daniel Lunney
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Eleven native millipede species (Polydesmida and Polyzoniida) have range boundaries in a narrow, 70 km-long zone, here called the Mersey Break, which runs inland from Devonport on the north coast of Tasmania. In each of four millipede genera, the Mersey Break is the parapatric boundary between a pair of species. It is difficult to find either an ecological or historical explanation for this striking biogeographical feature . All eleven species are widespread in Tasmania and occur on a range of parent geologies, at a range of elevations and in a range of forest and woodland habitats.