The millipede family Polydesmidae in the Caucasus (Diplopoda: Polydesmida)
Author
Golovatch, Sergei
Author
Evsyukov, Aleksandr
Author
Reip, Hans
text
Zootaxa
2016
2016-03-01
4085
1
1
51
journal article
31448
10.11646/zootaxa.4085.1.1
429cf011-ec4c-4a61-b894-2bd32b2ffc9b
1175-5326
1052381
7F819439-FD77-4EF2-8E26-7B46F9B5FAAB
Brachydesmus
(
Eubrachydesmus
)
superus
Latzel, 1884
Fig. 9
, Map 3
Brachydesmus
superus—
Muralewicz, 1907
: 340
, 349 (R); 1927: 6 (R);
Zuev, 2014
: 349
(R).
FIGURE 9.
Brachydesmus superus
Latzel, 1884
.
A:
habitus, entire body, dorsal view, male from Stavropol, Russia.
B:
left gonopod, male from Zheleznovodsk, Stavropol Prov., Russia. Designation:
pu
,
hairy pulvillus. Picture A taken by R. Zuev. Scale bars: 1.0 mm (A), 0.1 mm (B).
Material examined.
5 males
,
11 females
(
ZMUM
),
RUSSIA
,
Stavropol
Prov.,
Zheleznovodsk
, park at foot of
Mt Zheleznaya
, litter and under stones,
30.V.1982
, leg.
S. Golovatch.
5 males
,
7 females
(
ZMUM
),
ABKHAZIA
,
Nizhnyaya Yashtukha
near
Sukhumi
, tobacco plantation,
29.III.1987
, leg.
A. Markossian.
Descriptive notes.
Length ca
6.5
–
10 mm
, width of midbody metazonae
0.8
–
1.2 mm
(male, female), metazonite to prozonite width ratio <1.6 (
Fig. 9
A
). Live coloration usually uniformly light grey-brown to pallid.
All characters as in
B. assimilis
(
Fig. 9
), except as follows. Tegument particularly shiny (
Fig. 9
A
). Paraterga mostly poorly declivous, only slightly rounded laterally; caudolateral corner obtuse-angled only until segment 6, pointed or nearly pointed and increasingly well drawn behind rear tergal margin starting with segment 11 or 12 (
Fig. 9A
). Fore margins of paraterga largely straight, anterolateral corner angular. Tergal setae a little longer, mostly sharp. Male prefemora strongly bulging laterad. Gonopod (
Fig. 9B
) unipartite, slender, only slightly falcate, ventrally with several teeth or spines and a prominent hairy pulvillus (
pu
) in distal part.
Remarks.
Zuev’s (2014) claim for the first record of this ubiquitous anthropochore species in the Caucasus (at
Stavropol
) is wrong, as he had overlooked Muralewicz’s (1907, 1927) reports from Vladikavkaz, from between Balta and Lars, N
Ossetia
, and from Sukhumi,
Abkhazia
. However, those two latter records are not mapped here pending verification (Map 3).