Bollmania beroni, Stoev & Enghoff, 2005

Stoev, Pavel & Enghoff, Henrik, 2005, A new cave-dwelling millipede of the genus Bollmania Silvestri, 1896 from Yunnan, China, with remarks on the reduction of the second female leg-pair (Diplopoda: Callipodida: Caspiopetalidae), Journal of Natural History 39 (21), pp. 1875-1891 : 1877-1881

Bollmania beroni sp. n.

( Figures 1–11 )

Material examined Holotype: adult male; 63 pleurotergites+telson, length 37–38 mm, width 1.9–2.0 mm;

China, Yunnan, Jianshui County, Yan Dong Cave , 12 January 1989, P. Beron leg. Paratypes: adult male, 64 pleurotergites+telson and adult female, 65 pleurotergites+telson, same data, all in NMNHS ; adult male, 65 pleurotergites+telson, same data, ZMUC .

Description of locality

The cave is situated in Jianshui County, Yunnan. It is spacious, with at least two levels, and a stream about 40–50 cm deep. During heavy rains the floor is flooded. There are many stalactites. The Bulgarian–Chinese expedition explored ca 1237 m between its two entrances, Nan Ming Dong and Wan Xiang Dong, but, undoubtedly, the cave is longer. Cave fauna have been collected on the sand and the river mud. Associated fauna: Isopoda : Nagurus sundaicus (Dollfus, 1898) , Porcellionides pruinosus (Brandt, 1833) , Sinodillo troglophilus Do Heon Kwon and Taiti, 1993 , S. ferrarai Do Heon Kwon and Taiti, 1993 ( Do Heon Kwon and Taiti 1993); Chilopoda Scutigeromorpha : Thereuopoda longicornis (Fabricius, 1793) ( Stoev 2002) ; Araneae : Howaia sp. , Heteropoda sp. ; two other species of Diplopoda; Chilopoda Lithobiomorpha; Orthoptera; Coleoptera Carabidae and Staphylinidae ; Trichoptera; Diptera (P. Beron, personal communication).

Etymology

The species honours Dr Petar Beron who collected the material.

Description

Length: 35–40 mm, width 1.9–2.0 mm, 63–65 pleurotergites. Dimensions of the largest pleurotergite in male paratype: prozonite width 1.7 mm; height 1.6 mm; metazonite width 2.0 mm; height 1.8 mm; width of metazonite including the basal crests 2.3 mm; width of metazonite between the largest (sixth) crests 1.88 mm.

Body colour brown-yellowish. Dorsum with two paramedian light brown stripes and a broad median yellow stripe along the whole body length. Head and legs yellowish. Posterior part of head marbled brown-yellowish. Ocellaria in a rhomboid form composed of 35–40 black ocelli in seven rows. Organ of Tömösváry of same size as ocelli, easily seen between ocellaria and base of antennae. Head in males slightly concave frontally, covered with minute setae, and bearing a well-expressed frontal knob ( Figures 4, 5 ); in female ovoid, evenly rounded. Labrum light brown, a little darker in contrast to the yellowishbrown forehead. Labral edge covered with larger setae in an irregular row. Antennae yellowish-white, densely covered with minute setae, reaching the posterior margin of sixth pleurotergite when folded backward. First antennomere almost one-quarter of second; second and third almost equal in size; fourth antennomere four-fifths length of third. Fifth and sixth antennomeres enlarged distally, seventh cone-shaped ( Figure 4 ).

Male pleurotergites 1–5 visibly narrower than 6–8 and just a little narrower than 9–11. Each hemipleurite of pleurotergite 7 (the widest of all) with about 18 crests. Size of crests on pleurotergite 7: 6.10.85254.153555759. Female second and third pleurotergites strongly enlarged. Ozopores visible from sixth to penultimate pleurotergite, placed on top of the sixth, the most pronounced crest of all. Table I shows the chaetotaxy of the anterior pleurotergites.

First and second leg-pair in males shorter than following legs, with prefemur, femur, postfemur and tibia densely covered with setae that are missing in the subsequent legs. Male leg-pairs 2, and 4–7 with coxal projections ( Figure 7 ); pairs 1 and 3 without. Gonopore on posterior side of the coxa of leg 2. Prefemur of male leg-pair 7 much stouter than femur, its ventral side covered with a field of fine setae. A long seta emerging on the postero-ventral side of coxa, prefemur and femur ( Figure 7 ). Tarsus divided into a long basitarsus and a very short distitarsus, the latter ending with a claw. Tarsal pads present from leg-pair 3, larger on anterior legs. Coxae 9 and 10 normal. Female second leg-pair strongly reduced ( Figure 11 ). Hypoproct tripartite, median sclerite largest. Anal valves with two paramedian macrosetae. Spinnerets long and slender ( Figure 6 ).

Male gonopods ( Figures 8–10 ): telopodites in situ crossing each other ( Figure 8 ); coxae subquadrate, prolonged posteriad. Inner coxal process (ip) comparatively short and straight (not long and loop-shaped as that of B. oblonga and nodifrons ) equivalent to half of the coxal length. Coxae connected to each other through membranous ligament. Two perpendicular round-triangular sternal processes (st) originating between coxae ( Figure 8 ). Femoroid long and thin, pointing caudad. Basal part of solenomere with ovoid, porous plate (k) pointing meso-caudal ( Figures 9, 10 ). Solenomeres with long, sharp and S -shaped basal processes (p), crossing each other in situ ( Figure 8 ). Posterior part of solenomere ending with two branches, the upper one a little shorter and bearing a well-pronounced dorsal tooth (z) and a small but visible spine at its base (j). Another tiny spine (ha) emerging at the posterior end of the main branch. Seminal groove (sg) beginning from the base of the femoroid following its main stem and ending between the branches.

Remarks

Bollmania beroni sp. n. differs from its congeners by the following characters: antennae white-yellowish; coxae of male leg-pairs 2, 4–7 with projections; gonopods with a wellpronounced porous plate (k), dorsal tooth (z) and S -shaped process (p); female second legpair bipartite, with characteristic shape. Although found in a cave, there are no characters of troglomorphism, except probably for slightly longer legs (compared to the examined specimens from Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan, see below) and white-yellowish body and antennae (the other Bollmania species are usually dark brown, especially the antennae). Bollmania kohalana was, so far, the easternmost species described in the genus. The locality of B. beroni extends its range about 2500 km in a south-eastern direction, being the southernmost of all known localities and lying ca 1700 km south southwest of the only other (dubious, cf. above) Chinese record of Bollmania , near Nanjing ( Golovatch 1981). The new species is the first true troglo- and hygrophile (s.l.) described in the genus, living in a large cave system supporting a permanent stream.

Figures

Figures 1–3. Bollmania beroni sp. n., male paratype. (1) Habitus, total length 35 mm. (2, 3) Close-ups of anterior end in lateral and ventral views, showing swollen gonopodal region and long protruding gonopods in situ.

Figures 4–7. Bollmania beroni sp. n., male. (4) Head, anterior pleurotergites and gonopod, lateral view. (5) Head, frontal view. (6) Telson, postero-lateral view. (7) Leg-pair 7, posterior view.

Figures 8–12. (8–11) Bollmania beroni sp. n. (8) Gonopods, position in situ, caudal view. (9) Gonopod, mesal view. (10) gonopod, lateral view. (11) female: leg-pair 2, posterior view. (12) Bollmania sp. 1 from Afghanistan: leg-pair 2, posterior view.