Opisthoporodesmus Silvestri, 1899

Golovatch, Sergei I., Geoffroy, Jean-Jacques, Stoev, Pavel & Spiegel, Didier Vanden, 2013, Review of the millipede family Opisotretidae (Diplopoda, Polydesmida), with descriptions of new species, ZooKeys 302, pp. 13-77 : 27-28

Genus Opisthoporodesmus Silvestri, 1899

Opisthoporodesmus Silvestri, 1899: 206.

Opisthoporodesmus - Attems 1940: 151; Chamberlin 1945: 2-4; Hoffman 1982: 722; Simonsen 1990: 53.

Diagnosis.

A genus of Opisotretidae with 20 body segments (♂, ♀). ♂ vertex without modifications. Metaterga with three regular, transverse rows of bacilliform setae, but, probably in conjunction with frontolateral margin of midbody paraterga bearing prominent shoulders, at least sometimes all three rows strongly shifted caudad, last two being also abbreviated. Ozopore usually lying close to caudal margin of paratergite’s caudolateral corner.

Gonopod telopodite elongate, subunciform, unipartite, markedly attenuating distad; distal part with only a few small outgrowths at best, devoid of both bacilliform ornamentations and a solenomere, but supplied with both a small accessory seminal chamber and a hairy pulvillus (Fig. 11C).

Type species.

Opisthoporodesmus obtectus Silvestri, 1899, by monotypy.

Remarks.

In addition to the type species, the genus currently contains five formal congeners: Opisthoporodesmus anandrus Chamberlin, 1945, Opisthoporodesmus bacillifer Carl, 1912, Opisthoporodesmus conservandus Chamberlin, 1945, Opisthoporodesmus silvestri Chamberlin, 1945 and Opisthoporodesmus simplex Chamberlin, 1945. As these five species require revision and their identities remain uncertain, no key to Opisthoporodesmus species is possible for the time being.