Motion On the Sphere: Integrability and Families of Orbits

We study the problem of the motion of a unit mass on the unit sphere and examine the relation between integrability and certain monoparametric families of orbits. In particular we show that if the potential is compatible with a family of meridians, it is integrable with an integral linear in the velocities, while a family of parallels guarantees integrability with an integral quadratic in the velocities.