Glyphiulus obliteratus, Golovatch & Geoffroy & Mauriès & Spiegel, 2007

Golovatch, Sergei I., Geoffroy, Jean-Jacques, Mauriès, Jean-Paul & Spiegel, Didier Van Den, 2007, Review of the millipede genus Glyphiulus Gervais, 1847, with descriptions of new species from Southeast Asia (Diplopoda, Spirostreptida, Cambalopsidae). Part 2: the javanicus-group, Zoosystema 29 (3), pp. 417-456 : 422-424

publication ID	https://doi.org/ 10.5281/zenodo.5393630
DOI	https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5469540
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/B36487D8-FFC4-D53F-D2ED-FB5DFBA9FD2F
treatment provided by	Marcus
scientific name	Glyphiulus obliteratus
status	sp. nov.

Treatment

Glyphiulus obliteratus View in CoL n. sp.

( Figs 1 View FIG ; 2 View FIG )

TYPE MATERIAL. — China. Yunnan Prov., Meele (Mile) County, Bai Long Dong Cave ( White Dragon Cave ), 2.I.1989, leg. P.Beron, holotype ♂ ( NMNHS) ; paratypes 1 ♀ ( SEM) ; 1 subadult ♂, 1 fragment ( MNHN GA 044 View Materials ) .

ETYMOLOGY. — To emphasize the nearly smooth collum and the relatively poorly developed metatergal crests.

DIAGNOSIS. — Differs from the very closely related G. zorzini in the considerably smaller size, the nearly smooth collum, the pigmented ocelli, the 4-segmented male telopodite 1, etc. (see also key below).

DESCRIPTION

Holotype with 40p+3a+T, about 22 mm long and 1.4 mm wide; paratypes ♀ and fragment (caudal body piece) 1.1 mm wide; paratype subadult male with 32p+4a+T, c. 15 mm long and 1 mm wide.

Coloration completely pallid, only ocelli slightly pigmented, grey, weakly convex, arranged in a transverse ribbon of one or two rows, holotype with four on right side and five on left side of head, paratypes with five on each side. Clypeus with three indistinct teeth anteromedially. Antennae slender but not very long ( Figs 1A View FIG ; 2A View FIG ), antennomeres 6 and 7 each with a small distodorsal group of bacilliform sensilla.Gnathochilarium with a separate promentum ( Fig. 2B View FIG ).

Head width = segment 2 = 6(7) <collum = 8 = midbody segments> segment 3> 4> 5; body first very gradually but then abruptly tapering toward telson. Postcollar constriction evident ( Fig. 1B View FIG ).

Collum nearly smooth, with 3-4a+ma+3-4a low but evident undulations in caudal half ( Fig. 1A, B View FIG ). Subsequent metaterga evidently crested ( Fig. 1 View FIG A-E), especially so from segment 5 onwards, whence enlarged pore-bearing cones commence ( Fig. 1A, B View FIG ), these becoming increasingly inconspicuous towards telson and completely absent from legless segments due to loss of ozopores. Ozoporiferous tubercles round, wider than high ( Fig. 1D, E View FIG ); midbody metatergal crests complete ( Fig. 1C, D View FIG ), ozoporiferous crests distinctly divided into two about midway, their front halves being higher ( Fig. 1C, D View FIG ), those immediately below only indistinctly divided. Pleurosternal surface on segments behind 4th increasingly finely striate ventrad, not carinate, with about a dozen striae below single lateralmost crest. Carinotaxy formula 1/1+I/i+3+I/i+1/1 ( Fig. 1C, D View FIG ).

Tegument delicately alveolate-areolate, dull throughout. Fine longitudinal striations in front of stricture between pro- and metazona laterally and ventrolaterally, remaining surface of prozona very delicately shagreened. Metatergal setae absent. Segment 2 with long pleural flaps. Segments 2-4 each with a conspicuous, arcuate, pleurosternal crest ( Fig. 1A View FIG ). Limbus extremely finely and more or less regularly denticulate. Segments round in cross-section ( Fig. 1E View FIG ). Epiproct simple, devoid of tuberculation, with a rounded ridge in caudal part and an evident axial rib dorsally. Paraprocts rather regularly convex, each with a row of about a dozen setae at medial margin and several setae more laterally. Hypoproct lanceolate, poorly setose.

Ventral flaps behind gonopod opening on male segment 7 distinguishable as a low but clear transverse ridge.

Legs long, those on midbody segments slightly longer than segment diameter ( Fig. 1E View FIG ). Claw with a rudimentary accessory spine at base ( Figs 1F View FIG ; 2F View FIG ), this spine being slightly longer on legs 1 and 2.

Male legs 1 highly characteristic ( Fig. 2C View FIG ) in showing nearly fully developed, 4-segmented telopodites and a pair of large, subdigitiform, medially contiguous but apically diverging coxal processes with groups of long, strong setae at base. Male legs 2 nearly normal, only claw and, anteriorly, coxa somewhat reduced, and femur abbreviated on frontal face; penes broad, rounded, each with one or two strong setae distolaterally ( Fig. 2D View FIG ). Male legs 3 modified in having coxa especially slender and elongate ( Fig. 2E View FIG ).

Anterior gonopods ( Fig. 2G View FIG ) with a typical shieldlike coxosternum, this being modestly setose on caudal face and, on each side, provided with a conspicuous notch separating a high digitiform process (d) and a slightly lower subsecuriform process (s). Telopodite typical, rather large, stout, movable, 1-segmented, lateral in position, with several strong apical setae and a field of small setae at base, about as long as paramedian processes of coxosternum. Posterior gonopods ( Fig. 2H, I View FIG ) highly compact, both contiguous basally until about midheight; two densely setose lobes (l) paramedially; each half with two higher central pieces with a seminal groove in-between, frontal piece (f), elongate, apparently homologous with the apical flagelliform process observed in numerous congeners, caudal piece (c) subquadrate, membranous, micropapillate frontolaterally; a characteristic, rounded tubercle (?telopodite, t) with an apical field of coniform microsetae laterally.

REMARKS

In spite of the presence of slightly pigmented ocelli, this species could possibly be considered as troglobitic, as several other traits are evidently troglomorphic (unpigmented tegument, elongated legs and antennae, perhaps also the nearly smooth collum). The cave it has been found in also supports a presumed troglophilic congener, G. semigranulatus Golovatch, Geoffroy, Mauriès & Van den Spiegel, 2007 (see Golovatch et al. 2007).