Pseudotremia fulgida Loomis

Shear, William A., 2008, Cave millipeds of the United States. VII. New species and records of the genus Pseudotremia Cope. I. Species from West Virginia, USA (Diplopoda, Chordeumatida, Cleidogonidae), Zootaxa 1764, pp. 53-65 : 56-57

Pseudotremia fulgida Loomis

P. fulgida Loomis 1943 , p. 378. Shear, 1972, p. 188.

Type locality: Higgenbotham Cave, 1.5 mi west of Frankford, Greenbrier Co., WEST VIRGINIA. Male holotype in MCZ. Hoffman (1999) misspells the locality as “Frankfort.”

New Records: WEST VIRGINIA: Greenbrier Co.: Allison’s Cave, 3 mi NW of Frankford, 4 August 1973, D. Culver, ɗ, Ψ; Bob Gee Cave, 23 July 1999, D. Hubbard, ɗ, Ψ; McClung’s Cave, 4 April 1970, 4 October 1970, L. Ferguson, ɗɗ, ΨΨ; McFerrin Cave, 24 September 2000, D. Hubbard, ɗ. Pocahontas Co.: Friar’s Hole Cave, 14 July 1981, N. Plumley, ɗ, Ψ; Snedegar’s Cave of Friar’s Hole system, 7 March 1972, D. Culver, R. Baroody, ɗ, Ψ; Hughes Creek Cave, 2.4 mi W of Hillsboro, 18 May 1974, J. Holsinger et al., ɗ, Ψ; Piddling Pit, 13 August 1972, D. Culver, R. Baroody, ɗ, Ψ.

Notes: Pseudotremia fulgida is a highly adapted troglobiont endemic to the Greenbrier River drainage in Greenbrier and Pocahontas Cos. It may be expected in the many other, so far uncollected, caves in this region. In Snedegar’s Cave it is syntopic with a troglophile or epigean accidental, P. hobbsi Hoffman. In the recently published The Invertebrate Cave Fauna of West Virginia, Second Edition ( Fong et al. 2007), numerous new records of this species are listed, and they are not repeated here. A perusal of the maps in that volume shows that the distribution of fulgida is coincident with that of several other troglobiotic arthropods, including Pseudosinella gisini gisini Christiansen 1960 ( Collembola , Entomobryidae ), Litocampa fieldingi Condé 1949 ( Diplura , Campodeidae ), Pseudanophthalmus fuscus fuscus Valentine 1931 , P. higginbothami Valentine 1931 ( Coleoptera , Carabidae ), and Kleptochthonius henroti (Vachon) 1952 (Pseudoscorpionida, Chthoniidae ). These species and others may represent elements of a glacial relict fauna, once found on the surface but now limited to caves.