Hemilepistus (Desertellio), Verhoeff 1930

Kashani, Ghasem M., 2019, Revision of the terrestrial isopods of the subgenus Hemilepistus (Desertellio) Verhoeff, 1930 (Isopoda: Oniscidea), Zootaxa 4555 (4), pp. 531-547 : 532

Subgenus Desertellio Verhoeff 1930

Type species: Oniscus ruderalis Pallas, 1771 : 477.81, here designated.

Diagnosis. Body narrow and elongated, no conglobation ability. Head and anterior pereon tergites bearing tubercles not protruding backwards from posterior margins.

Remarks. The two subgenera differ from each other not only in terms of morphological characters, but also in terms of behavioral and reproductive strategies. The members of Desertellio are iteroparous species living under stones and in the leaf litters and the soil crevices ( Röder & Linsenmayr 1999; Kashani & Sari 2012). Hemilepistus species, however, indicate behavioral adaptations for living in arid habitats, where these semelparous species dig burrow into the soil in which they make monogamous pairs and take care of the offspring until the next breeding season ( Linsenmair 1972, 1984; Shachak et al. 1979; Shachak 1980, Warburg 1994, Kashani et al. 2010).

These remarkable differences between the two subgenera suggest the paraphyletic status of the genus Hemilepistus (Spyros Sfenthourakis and Helmut Schmalfuss, personal communication) necessitating further investigations to clarify the ambiguities.