Rhodopotyphlus, Vagalinski, 2021

Vagalinski, Boyan, 2021, Rhodopotyphlus mitovi gen. et sp. nov., a new endogean millipede from the Western Rhodope Mountains, Bulgaria (Diplopoda: Julida: Julidae), Zootaxa 5071 (3), pp. 415-426 : 416

Genus Rhodopotyphlus gen. nov.

Type species. Rhodopotyphlus mitovi gen. et sp. nov., by present designation.

Diagnosis. A genus of the family Julidae characterized by the combination of the following characters: lack of ommatidia, lack of expanded lobes of male mandibular stipites, presence of vertigial and metazonal setae, ozopores placed at some distance behind the pro-metazonal suture, penis of a leptoiulinine/typhloiulinine type (see Enghoff 1996), anterior gonopods (promeres) bearing a flagellum, and very simple, unipartite posterior gonopods (opisthomeres) which are devoid of distinct processes including a mesomere (either freely articulated with the opisthomere or connected to it through a lamella). Distinguished from Banatoiulus Tabacaru, 1985 —the only other genus with somewhat similar gonopod conformation—mainly by the presence vs. absence of vertigial setae, as well as by the completely undivided opisthomere, vs. the same possessing a well-differentiated solenomere and a distal caudal process in the latter genus.

Etymology. Derived from the type locality in the Rhodope Mts and the Greek typhlos meaning “blind”, to refer to the absence of ommatidia. Masculine.