Aphelidesminae Brölemann, 1916

Almeida, Thaís Melo De, Shelley, Rowland M. & Rafael, José Albertino, 2018, Xanthotropis, a new genus in the Neotropical millipede subfamily Aphelidesminae (Diplopoda, Polydesmida, Aphelidesmidae), Zootaxa 4471 (2), pp. 351-360 : 353

Subfamily Aphelidesminae Brölemann, 1916 .

Aphelidesminae Brölemann, 1916: 550 . Pocock, 1909a: 157. Hoffman, 1954: 57 (key); 1999: 392. Chamberlin and Hoffman, 1958: 56. Jeekel, 1963: 66; 1971: 249, 299 (list). GoloVatch et al., 1998: 67; 2004: 57–58. GoloVatch, 2002: 173. Jorgensen, 2009: 80.

Aphelidesmini : Hoffman, 1978: 39 (key); 1980: 164.

Type-genus. Aphelidesmus Brölemann, 1898 .

Diagnosis. Differing from Amplininae in that the solenomere does not directly connect to the prefemur ( Figs. 2A–D ; 4A–D ).

Components. Four genera, distinguished in the ensuing key.

Distribution ( Fig. 1 ). Costa Rica and Tobago to central Ecuador and northern Brazil.

Remarks. Attems (1937) and Chamberlin (1952), who assigned Aphelidesmus to, now, Paradoxosomatidae (Strongylosomatidea) , are the only authors to have placed the genus in a polydesmidan suborder other than Leptodesmidea (=Chelodesmidea). We suspect they did so because the cingula and acropodital divisions in Aphelidesmus convergently resemble those in Paradoxosomatidae , which are generally associated with ambulatory podomeres. Attems (1937) and Jeekel (1950, 2000) labeled these divisions in Aphelidesmus but omitted the postfemur, so tibiotarsus follows the femur.

Figures

FIGURE 1. DistribUtion of Aphelidesmidae.

FIGURE 2. Gonopodal configUrations of select aphelidesmine genera showing relatiVe lengths of the telopodital prefemora and acropodite. A. Aphelidesmus, A. junki GoloVatch, Hoffman & Spelda, 2004, right gonopod, lateral View. B. Ochrotropis, O. guianensis (Chamberlin, 1923), left gonopod, lateral View (modified from Jeekel, 2000). C. Haematotropis, H. callipa (Peters, 1864), right gonopod, medial View. Scale lines: 1.00 mm.

FIGURE 4. Gonopodal featUres of Xanthotropis media n. comb. A. Left gonopod, lateral View. B. The same, medial View. C. The same, dorsal View. D. Right gonopod, dorsal View (modified from GoloVatch et al., 2004). Scale lines: A–C (0.5 mm), D (1000 µm).