Desmoxytes pinnasquali Srisonchai, Enghoff & Panha, 2016

Srisonchai, Ruttapon, Enghoff, Henrik, Likhitrakarn, Natdanai & Panha, Somsak, 2018, A revision of dragon millipedes I: genus Desmoxytes Chamberlin, 1923, with the description of eight new species (Diplopoda, Polydesmida, Paradoxosomatidae), ZooKeys 761, pp. 1-177 : 1

publication ID

https://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.761.24214

publication LSID

lsid:zoobank.org:pub:91658359-00AE-4319-ACBC-E9C544599C5B

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/DA7987AA-19A5-FE47-C505-AA73321B485C

treatment provided by

ZooKeys by Pensoft

scientific name

Desmoxytes pinnasquali Srisonchai, Enghoff & Panha, 2016
status

 

Desmoxytes pinnasquali Srisonchai, Enghoff & Panha, 2016 View in CoL Fig. 66

Desmoxytes pinnasquali Srisonchai, Enghoff & Panha, 2016: 107.

Material examined. Holotype.

Male (CUMZ), THAILAND, Phitsanulok Province, Noen Maprang District, near Pra Tham Mans Monastery (Tham Wangdaeng), 16°41'40"N, 100°40'42"E, ca. 76 m a.s.l., 22 August 2014, leg. S. Panha, C. Sutcharit and U. Banthaowong.

Paratypes.

22 males, 5 females (CUMZ), 2 males, 1 female (ZMUC), same data as holotype. 10 males, 17 females (CUMZ), THAILAND, Phitsanulok Province, Noen Maprang District, near Pra Tham Mans Monastery (Tham Wangdaeng), 16°41'40"N, 100°40'42"E, ca. 76 m a.s.l., 23 July 2008, leg. N. Likhitrakarn. 2 females (CUMZ), THAILAND, Phitsanulok Province, Noen Maprang District, near Pra Tham Mans Monastery (Tham Wangdaeng), 16°41'40"N, 100°40'42"E, ca. 76 m a.s.l., 8 September 2009, leg. U. Bantaowong and R. Chanabun. 3 males, 6 females (CUMZ), THAILAND, Phitsanulok Province, Noen Maprang District, near Pa Ma Muang monastery, 16°34'00"N, 100°41'41"E, ca. 113 m a.s.l., 23 July 2008, leg. C. Sutcharit and P. Tongkerd.

Further specimens,

all from THAILAND, Phitsanulok Province, Noen Maprang District: 1 male, 2 females (CUMZ), Pra Tham Mans Monastery (Tham Wangdaeng), 16°41'40"N, 100°40'42"E, ca. 76 m a.s.l., 29 July 2016, leg. P. Pimvichai, T. Backeljau, P. Prasankok and N. Nantarat. 3 males, 4 females (CUMZ), Pa Ma Muang Bureau of Monks (= Pa Ma Muang Monastery), 16°34'00"N, 100°41'41"E, ca. 113 m a.s.l., 29 July 2016, leg. P. Pimvichai, T. Backeljau, P. Prasankok and N. Nantarat.

Type locality.

THAILAND, Phitsanulok Province, Noen Maprang District, Pra Tham Mans Monastery (Tham Wangdaeng).

Diagnosis.

Differs from all other Desmoxytes species by the combination of the following characters; sternal lobe between male coxae 4 subrectangular or subtrapeziform, flattened when seen in lateral view; apical tubercles of epiproct conspicuous, long, digitiform; process (plm) of lamina medialis sharkfin-like, long.

Redescription (updated from Srisonchai et al. 2016).

SIZE: Length 24-30 mm (male), 28-33 mm (female); width of midbody metazona ca. 2.0-2.2 mm (male), 2.4 mm (female). Width of head <collum <body ring 2 <3 ≤ 4 <5-16, thereafter body gradually tapering toward telson.

COLOUR: In life with body vivid pink or brownish pink; paraterga vivid pink; metaterga and surface below paraterga brownish pink; head and antenna blackish brown (except distal part of antennomere 7 and antennomere 8 whitish); legs pink or brownish pink; a few basal podomeres whitish pink; sterna brown or pinkish brown; epiproct pink. Colour in alcohol: after two years changed to pale brown.

ANTENNAE: Long and slender, reaching to body ring 5 or end of 5 (male), and 4 (female) when stretched dorsally.

COLLUM: With 3 transverse rows of setiferous tubercles, 3(4)+3(4) anterior, 1+1 intermediate and 2+2 posterior tubercles (excluding small setiferous notches at base of collum paraterga); paraterga of collum low, elevated at ca. 10°-15°, directed almost laterad, with two setiferous notches on lateral margin (first notch located at the base of paratergum, second one conspicuous).

TEGUMENT: Moderately shining; collum and metaterga coarsely microgranulate; prozona finely shagreened; surface below paraterga finely microgranulate; paraterga, sterna and epiproct smooth.

METATERGA: With 2 transverse rows of setiferous tubercles, setiferous cones and setiferous spines; metaterga 2-17 with 2+2 anterior cones and 2+2 posterior spines; metaterga 18 and 19 with 2+2 anterior tubercles and 2+2 posterior tubercles.

PARATERGA: Directed caudolaterad on body rings 2-17, elevated at ca. 45° (male) 40° (female); directed increasingly caudad on body rings 18 and 19; anterior margin with 2 distinct notches, on lateral margin of body rings 9, 10, 12, 13, 15-18 with tiny denticle near the tip.

TELSON: Epiproct: tip extremely concave; lateral setiferous tubercles inconspicuous, very short; apical tubercles conspicuous, very long, digitiform. Hypoproct subsemicircular; caudal margin round, with big and conspicuous setiferous tubercles.

STERNA: Cross-impressions shallow. Sternal lobe between male coxae 4 swollen, usually subrectangular (in some specimens subtrapeziform), flat when seen in lateral view, tip subtruncate.

LEGS: Very long and slender. Male femora 5 and 6 moderately humped ventrally in middle part (hump of femora 6 bigger than 5).

GONOPODS (Fig. 66): Coxa (cx) longer than prefemur. Cannula (ca) slender. Prefemur (pfe) ca. 2/3 as long as femur. Femur (fe) long and slender. Mesal sulcus (ms) and lateral sulcus (ls) very deep and wide. Postfemur (pof) conspicuous, ventrally quite wide. Solenophore (sph) well-developed: lamina lateralis (ll) swollen: lamina medialis (lm) well-developed; process (plm) long, sharkfin-like, tip slightly blunt (in some specimens slightly sharp), directed mesad; distal lobe (dlm) distally with two lamellae (mesal lamella slightly smaller than second one); broad lobe (blm) thick, obviously demarcated from distal lobe (dlm) by a wide and shallow indentation. Solenomere (sl) quite long.

Distribution and habitat.

Known only from the type locality and nearby area. It was found in limestone habitats. Given the narrow distribution in the small limestone area in the west of Thung Salaeng Luang National Park ( Srisonchai et al. 2016), we regard this species as endemic for Thailand.

Remarks.

We collected additional topotypes during the rainy season. Some morphological variation was found. Thus, in some individuals, the sternal lobe between male coxae 4 is subrectangular, in others subtrapeziform. Gonopod variation is also found in this species; the tip of process (plm) of lamina medialis seems to be slightly blunt in some specimens, slightly sharp in others.

Coexisting species.

None known.

Corrections to Srisonchai et al. (2016)

Srisonchai et al. (2016, pp. 99-103) wrote in the description of this species that the paraterga (including paraterga of collum) are directed dorsolaterad at ca. 30°. They are in fact directed caudolaterad and elevated at ca. as 45°. Moreover, Srisonchai et al. also described the type of tubercles on metaterga as spines in body rings 2-19. We prefer to change terms, from spine to tubercle and cone - thus, metaterga 2-17 with rows of 2+2 anterior cones and 2+2 posterior spines, metaterga 18-19 with rows of 2+2 anterior tubercles and 2+2 posterior tubercles.