Ommatoiulus fuentei ( Brolemann, 1920 )

Akkari, Nesrine & Enghoff, Henrik, 2012, Review of the genus Ommatoiulus in Andalusia, Spain (Diplopoda: Julida) with description of ten new species and notes on a remarkable gonopod structure, the fovea, Zootaxa 3538, pp. 1-53 : 19-21

Ommatoiulus fuentei ( Brolemann, 1920)

Figs 41–46

Schizophyllum (Eleutheroiulus) Fuentei Brolemann, 1920: 132–136 , figs 7–10

Ommatoiulus fuentei: Mauriès 1978: 585 , Vicente 1985: 323

Material. Type material: Schizophyllum (Eleutheroiulus) Fuentei Brolemann, 1920 , Espagne, Pozuelo de la Calatrava , holotype ♂ ( MNHN/7538 ). Non type material: 2 ♂, Córdoba, El Patriarca, 37º54'38''N, 4º48'33''W, alt. 214 m, 7.xi.2011, M. Baena leg. ( ZMUC) ; 1 ♂, 1 ♀, 4 km W La Carolina, Jaén , 38º17'08”N, 3º39'11”W, E. Recuero leg. ( ZMUC) .

Diagnosis. Most similar to O. dorsovittatus , O. armatus , and O. baileyi n. sp.; differing, however, by a voluminous coxite, a long slender paracoxite and a slender additional process emerging from the mesomerite basis.

Description. Males: L: 36 mm, H: 3.0 mm, 48 PR+1 AR+T. Females: L: 42 mm, H: 4.0 mm, 48 PR+2 AR+T. Colour alternately purple-brown, yellowish, marbled with black and purple brown. Prozonites yellowish marbled with black spots, dorsally paler, metazonites chestnut brown, anteriorly darker, legs purple, head dark brown and telson blackish, dorsum with a thin, dark mid-dorsal line. Telson: anal valves with 1 marginal row of short setae, a submarginal row of longer ones and 4–5 setae on the disc; subanal scale triangular, pointed and setose; preanal ring with a protruding caudal projection bearing a small hyaline process and 2–2 setae on the lateral sides. Gonopods: Promerite (P) ( Figs 41, 42) broad and short. Mesal ridge (Mr) making a fold running along the margin up to the apical part; lateral margin (Lm) broader distally, expanding into a lateral lobe; apical margin protruding mesally into a rounded apex (ap); the latter separated from the apical margin by a notch (n); rudimentary telopodite (T) small, located basally. Posterior gonopod ( Figs 42–46): Mesomerite (Ms) long, basally broad, gradually narrowing distad into a hook-shaped apex strongly bent posterolaterad, accompanied by a slender and acuminate process emerging from the same basis and pointing apicad (w) ( Figs 41, 43, 46); solenomerite complex and voluminous, with accessory branches, the main process (S) comprising a distal lobe folded mesolaterally and bent apically; tip protruding into two acuminate processes pointing posterolaterad (d1, d2) ( Figs 44, 46), inner margins of the fold bearing several rows of spikes running all along the process ( Fig. 45). The latter posteromesally connected to a lower, marginally serrated lamella covered by numerous spikes, connected to a mesal, elongate and slender parasolenomerite (Ps). Fovea (F) ( Figs 41, 46) lodging mesally in the base of the solenomerite giving rise to the seminal groove (g) ( Fig. 41). The latter running mesolaterad up to the lamella, before entering the main process (S) along the serrated margins and opening between the two apical processes. Coxite (Co) ( Figs 43–46) broad and rounded, somewhat reminding of O. diplurus , paracoxite (Px) slenderer and more elongate.

Distribution. Hitherto known from Ciudad Real (Type locality, Brolemann 1920), also recorded from Badajoz Province in Estremadura (Kime, Personal communication) and here for the first time recorded in Andalusia in Córdoba and Jaén.

Habitat. Abundant in litter of shrub with Halimium spp. , also found on roadway ( Bailey and De Mendonça 1990).

Comments. Ommatoiulus fuentei has a unique feature in the structure of the gonopods which consists in the presence of an accessory process, slender and acuminate, emerging from the same basis as the mesomerite. The latter process was interpreted as a ‘possible paracoxite’ by Brolemann (1920) in the original description of the species (see fig. 8, pa) while what he ( Brolemann 1920) described as ‘an apical continuation of the coxite’ is what we conventionally consider as paracoxite.