Hyleoglomeris qiyi, Golovatch, Sergei I., Liu, Weixin & Geoffroy, Jean-Jacques, 2012

Golovatch, Sergei I., Liu, Weixin & Geoffroy, Jean-Jacques, 2012, Review of the millipede genus Hyleoglomeris Verhoeff, 1910 in China, with descriptions of new species (Diplopoda, Glomerida, Glomeridae), Zootaxa 3358, pp. 1-27 : 13-15

Hyleoglomeris qiyi sp. n.

Figs 9 A–C & 10.

Material examined: Holotype male ( IZAS), China, Guangxi Prov., Huanjiang County, Mulun Karst, Min Li Forest, 25.09935ºN, 107.96647ºE, litter, Berlese extraction after sifting, 14.03.2005, leg. Chen (CHIgx05–109). Paratypes. 1 female, 1 juv. ( IZAS), 1 female, 1 juv. ( MNHN CC 175), same locality, together with holotype.

Name: To emphasize the highly peculiar syncoxite of the telopods, i.e. hypertrophied horns and a wamting central lobe, “ qiyi ” in Chinese meaning “bizarre”; a noun in apposition.

Diagnosis: Differs from congeners except H. venustula ( Silvestri, 1917) in the hypertrophied horns and a strongly reduced central lobe of the telopod syncoxite ( Silvestri 1917), from H. venustula by its far more strongly developed horns and a wanting central lobe. See also Key below.

Description: Length ca 5.5 (holotype) or 6.0 mm (paratypes), width 2.5 mm (holotype) or 2.6 mm (paratypes). Coloration motley, dark brown and yellowish. Ocelli blackish, 7+1, translucid. Tömösváry’s organ transverse-oval, only slightly wider than long. Antennomere 6 ca 1.7 times as long as high.

Colour pattern mostly very clear ( Fig. 9 A–C). Head, ventral side of body and legs mostly marbled light yellow-brown to red-brown; ocelli black; antennae red-brown basally, growing increasingly dark red-brown distad, pallid apically ( Fig. 9 C). Collum rather broadly marbled brown along margins and narrowly brownish along both transverse striae, with a lighter, marbled, vague, yellowish, central spot (holotype), or infuscate, marbled dark brown only laterally (paratypes, Fig. 9 A, B). Second tergite with a distinct, dark brown, central, transverse, crossshaped marking extending laterad into rather wide bands along both front and caudal margins; front band somewhat lighter and nearly reaching down the schism (holotype) or almost so (paratypes, Figs 9 A, B); caudal band darker, shorter and supplied with a considerable arm stretched frontodorsally; large, paramedian, marbled yellowish, comma-shaped spots remaining laterally between both darker bands; a small, subtriangular, axial, yellowish spot lying also at caudal margin. Tergites 3–11 each with an elongate, transverse, marbled yellowish spot lying laterally between a rather broad, marbled brown interval situated above a broadly whitish lateral end of tergites, on the one hand, and a light, marbled yellowish, axial spot, on the other. Light axial spots on tergites 3–5 larger, irregularly subquadrate, each with a small brown spot at caudal margin; light axial spots on following tergites increasingly small and vague, subtriangular, most of them also showing a small brown spot at caudal margin ( Fig. 9 A, B). Anal shield mostly light yellowish, with a large, dark brown, round (holotype) or vertically oblong-oval (paratypes) spot reaching neither ventral nor dorsal margin ( Fig. 9 A, C).

Collum with two transverse striae. Second tergite with a rather broad hyposchism reaching behind the caudal tergal margin; seven transverse striae, three starting below, one level to, the remaining three striae above schism, only one stria crossing the dorsum. Male anal shield regularly rounded at caudal margin.

Male leg 17 ( Fig. 10 A) with a low and irregularly shaped outer coxal lobe; telopodite 4-segmented, tarsus with one subapical spine.

Male leg 18 ( Fig. 10 B) with a broadly arch-shaped syncoxital notch; telopodite 4-segmented.

Telopods ( Fig. 10 C, D) with an extremely strongly hypertrophied syncoxite, the latter being totally devoid of a central lobe, but supplied with conspicuous (nearly as long as telopods), thick, densely setose horns crowned with a strong apical uncus and a subapical bifid filament on front face. Prefemur sparsely micropapillate laterally. Caudomedial femoral process prominent, apically with a small membranous sac. Caudomedial process of tibia evident, membranous; tibial tubercle on caudal face distinct, papillate. Tarsus rather strongly sigmoid, rounded apically.

Remarks: This species is remarkable due to its conspicuously enlarged and complex telopod syncoxite. A somewhat similar structure has only been known in H. venustula , from the Himalaya of Assam, India ( Silvestri 1917), but the telopod syncoxital horns are much less strongly incrassate and elongate while a vestigial central lobe is still discernible.

The slightly unsteady shape of the dark central spot on the anal shield is most probably only individual variation not linked to sex.

Figures

FIGURE 9. Habitus of Hyleoglomeris qiyi sp. n., female paratype (A – C), and of Hyleoglomeris lii sp. n., female paratype (D – F), lateral, dorsal and ventral views, respectively. Photographed not to scale.

FIGURE 10. Hyleoglomeris qiyi sp. n., holotype. A: leg 17, front view. B: leg 18, front view. C & D: left half of telopods, front and caudal views, respectively. Scale bar: 0.2 mm.