Belongs within: Polydesmida.
The Pyrgodesmidae are a family of flat-backed millipedes in which males have large, globose coxae on the gonopods (Hoffman 1990).
Characters (Hoffman 1990): Body not modified for volvation, paranota directed more or less horizontally; sterna much wider than length of a coxa; ozopores present; collum considerably enlarged, flabellate, concealing most or all of head in dorsal aspect; metaterga with at most three transverse rows of tubercles or flattened elevated areas, usually with two paramedian longitudinal rows of enlarged tubercles; gonopod coxae large, globose, carried almost entirely outside body.
<==Pyrgodesmidae [Pyrgodesminae, Stiodesmidae, Stylodesmidae, Stylodesmoidea]
|--Poratia obliterata (Kraus 1960)AGM03
|--Aporodesminus wallacei Silvestri 1904AGM03
|--PsochodesmusH90
|--CalyptodesmusH90
|--IomusP92
|--Taulidesmus Kraus 1954K54
| `--*T. nodosus Kraus 1954K54
`--Myrmecodesmus Silvestri 1910AGM03
|--M. adisi (Hoffman 1985) [=Gonographis adisi]AGM03
|--M. duodecimlobatus (Golovatch 1966)AGM03
|--M. hastatus (Schubart 1945)AGM03
`--M. minusculus (Golovatch 1966)AGM03
*Type species of generic name indicated
References
[AGM03] Adis, J., S. I. Golovatch & B. Messner. 2003. Morphological structures in some Neotropical Myrmecodesmus species (Diplopoda: Polydesmida: Pyrgodesmidae) reveal the ability for plastron respiration. Arthropoda Selecta 12: 17–21.
[H90] Hoffman, R. L. 1990. Diplopoda. In: Dindal, D. L. (ed.) Soil Biology Guide pp. 835–860. John Wiley & Sones: New York.
[K54] Kraus, O. 1954. Myriapoden aus Peru, II. Senckenbergiana Biologica 35: 17–55.
[P92] Poinar, G. O., Jr. 1992. Life in Amber. Stanford University Press: Stanford.