Millipedes in this family range from 5 mm to 16 mm in length. The paranota are small humps and hardly developed sometimes. The posterior gonopods have from one to three segments.[3] Adult millipedes in this family have 26 or 30 segments (counting the collum as the first segment and the telson as the last).[4][3] This family includes the cave-dwelling species Opisthocheiron canayerensis, notable as one of only a few chordeumatidan species with only 26 segments in adults, four fewer segments than typically found in adults in this order.[5][4]
^Geoffroy, Jean-Jacques (1984). "Particularités du Développement Post-embryonaire du Diplopode Craspedosomide Cavernicole Opisthocheiron canayerensis". Mémoires de Biospéologie (in French). 11: 211–220.
