Eviulisoma taita, VandenSpiegel, Didier & Golovatch, Sergei I., 2014

VandenSpiegel, Didier & Golovatch, Sergei I., 2014, The millipede genus Eviulisoma Silvestri, 1910 in Kenya, with descriptions of new species (Diplopoda, Polydesmida, Paradoxosomatidae), ZooKeys 459, pp. 11-34 : 17-20

Taxon classification Animalia Polydesmida Paradoxosomatidae

Eviulisoma taita sp. n. Figs 5, 6, Maps 1, 2

Type material.

Holotype ♂ (MRAC 22631), Kenya, Taita Hills, Mbololo Forest, S03°22.56', E38°20.70', 1800-1900 m a.s.l., pitfall traps, III–IV.1999, leg. L. Rogo.

Paratypes: 17 ♂, 13 ♀, 4 juv. (MRAC 18084), 1 ♂, 1 ♀ (ZMUM ρ 2444), same data, together with holotype; 2 ♂, 2 ♀ (MRAC 18029), same locality, pitfall traps, 3.VII-2.VIII.1999, leg. R. Mwakos; 1 ♂, 1 ♀ (MRAC 18412), same locality, 8.XII.1999, leg. D. VandenSpiegel & J. P. Michiels; 1 ♀, 1 juv. (MRAC 17990), same locality, 22.VI.1999, leg. D. VandenSpiegel; 9 ♂, 8 ♀, 33 juv. (MRAC 18039), same locality, 1800-1900 m a.s.l., sieving, 2-10.VII.1999, leg. R. Mwakos; 1 ♀ (MRAC 17976), same locality, 21.VI.1999, leg. D. VandenSpiegel; 1 ♂, 1 ♂ fragment, 1 ♀, 1 ♀ fragment (MRAC 18414), same locality, 8.XII.1999, leg. D. VandenSpiegel & J. P. Michiels; 3 ♂, 1 ♀ (MRAC 18100), Taita Hills, Yale Forest, 1840 m, S03°39', E38°33', pitfall traps, III–IV.1999, leg. L. Rogo; 4 ♂, 4 ♀, 22 juv. (MRAC 18451), Taita Hills, Fururu Forest, S03°26', E38°20', 9.XII.1999; 1 ♂, 3 ♀, 20 juv. (MRAC 18495), same locality, Winkler extraction, 9.12.1999; 5 ♂, 4 ♀, 1 juv. (MRAC 18576), Taita Hills, Mwachora Forest, Winkler extraction, 10.XII.1999, all leg. D. VandenSpiegel & J. P. Michiels; 2 ♂ (MRAC 22632), same data; 1 ♂, 1 ♀, 1 ♀ fragment, 1 juv. (MRAC 22633), same locality, 15.II.2004, leg. T. Spanhove & M. Chovu.

Name.

To emphasize the type locality, a noun in apposition.

Diagnosis.

Differs from congeners by a broadly and regularly rounded hypoproct, coupled with the presence of sternal cones behind ♂ body segment 7, and the lamellar, slender, apically unciform and bidentate solenophore (sph) carrying a lateral tooth midway (t) and reaching about as long as a flagelliform solenomere (sl), both sph and sl being considerably higher than a rather simple, similarly slender, postfemoral process (p). See also Key below.

Description.

Length of adults ca 16-23 (♂) or 18-28 mm (♀), width of midbody metazonae 1.5-2.7 (♂) or 2.0-3.7 mm (♀). Holotype ca 16 mm long and 1.6 mm wide on midbody metazonae.

Coloration from pallid to annulated chocolate brown due to darker metazonae, often with a thin axial pigment line and a similar transverse pigment line in posterior 1/3 of metaterga.

Other adult characters as in Eviulisoma ngaia sp. n., except as follows.

Vertigial region with a few setae (Figs 5A, 6D). Stricture between pro- and metazonae very delicately striolate. Tegument generally smooth, often with only a few arcuate striae near and below ozopores. Pleurosternal carinae rather evident, arcuate ridges devoid of a caudal tooth, visible until segment 16 (♂, ♀). Epiproct long (Fig. 5B), faintly concave apically, subapical lateral papillae evident, well removed from tip. Hypoproct broadly rounded.

Setose lobe between ♂ coxae 4 (Fig. 6E) low, subtrapeziform, slightly rounded apically. Sternite between ♂ coxae 5 densely setose, with paramedian cones caudally (Fig. 6E); sterna between ♂ coxae 6 and 7 unusually deeply excavate and ledge-shaped for accommodation of gonopod tips (Figs 5C, 6 D–F), the excavation’s frontal edge being sparsely setose (Fig. 6E). Postgonopodial sterna mostly with small, low, blunt cones near each coxa, anterior pair being even smaller than caudal one on each diplosegment. ♂ tarsi considerably to only slightly longer than tibiae (Fig. 6C). Legs 1.5-1.6 (♂) or 0.9-1.1 (♀) times as long as body height. ♂ tibiae and tarsi with ventral brushes until last two leg-pairs (Fig. 6C).

Gonopods (Figs 5C, 6 F–J) with a lamellar, slender, apically unciform and bidentate solenophore (sph) carrying a lateral tooth midway (t) and being about as long as a flagelliform solenomere (sl), both sph and sl considerably higher than a rather simple, similarly slender, postfemoral process (p).

Vulvae without peculiarities, as in Fig. 6A, B.