Bayaria nana ( Loomis, 1936 ) Shear & Marek, 2024

Shear, William A. & Marek, Paul E., 2024, The millipede family Striariidae Bollman, 1893. IX. The identity of Striaria californica Cook, 1899, and the new genus Bayaria for Striaria nana Loomis, 1936, with a key to genera and an annotated checklist of the Striariidae (Diplopoda, Chordeumatida, Striarioidea), Zootaxa 5463 (4), pp. 524-544 : 530-531

Bayaria nana ( Loomis, 1936) , new combination

Figs. 11–17 , 20–26

Striaria nana Loomis, 1936: 407 ; Hoffman, 1999: 209.

Striaria carmela Chamberlin, 1947: 9 ; Hoffman, 1999: 208. New synonymy.

Types. Male holotype and male and female paratypes of S. nana from Altamont Pass, above Niles, California (37.746°, - 121.658°), collected 1 December 1926 by O. F. Cook (USNMNH). Male holotype and female paratype of S. carmela from the Hastings Reservation, Monterey Co., California (36.379°, -121.563°), collected 24 March 1946 by J. M. Linsdale (USNMNH). Types examined by WS in 2017.

Diagnosis As for the genus, above.

Descriptive notes: Loomis (1936) described the collum of B. nana as having the usual 10 crests, but this is not borne out by examination of specimens; the great majority of which have either no detectable crests on the collum in males ( Fig. 11 ) or only very low crests posteriolaterally in females. Otherwise Loomis’s description of the nonsexual characters is accurate and need not be repeated here. We provide new figures of the gonopods and secondary sexual characters of the male ( Figs 11–17 , 20–26 ). The mandibular stipes bears a serrate distal margin and an apical acute lobe (m, Fig. 12 ). Labral processes are absent (lab, Fig. 12 ). The first legs lack spatulate or needlelike setae ( Fig. 13 ) and the third legs have coxal flasks (cf, Fig. 14 ), about the same length as the prefemora (pf3, Fig 14 ). The anterior angiocoxites (aac, Figs 15, 16 , 20–26 ) are similar to those of species of Amplaria and other striariid genera, but distinctive in having a long, sinuous lateral process (sp, Fig. 17 ) with a basal accessory spine (ap, Fig. 17 ) and a shorter, mesal process which ends in an array of comblike teeth (c, Fig. 17 ). The posterior angiocoxites (pac, Figs 16, 17 , 20–22, 24, 25 ) are, as usual, more difficult to characterize, but as in other genera sheath two or possibly three flagellocoxites (f). The lateral lobes of the colopcoxites are poorly sclerotized (cc, Figs 20, 22, 24 ).

Records: In addition to the type localities. CALIFORNIA: Marin Co. 6 miles east of Point Reyes Station , 38.070°, -121.701°, 1 March 1960, A. Grigarick et al., m ( CAS) . Monterey Co.: Big Creek Reserve, 30 km east of Big Sur , 36.070°, -121.599°, 27 February 1999, S. & J. Peck coll. #9972, mm, ff ( FMNH) ; Bottchers Gap. 3 km east and 11 km east of Rt. 1 on Palo Colorado Road , 36.354°, -121.813°, 600’ asl, 26 February 1999, S. & J. Peck coll. #9970, 9969, mm, ff ( FMNH) ; Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park , 36.253°, -121.787°, 26 February 1999, S. & J. Peck coll. 9971, mm, ff ( FMNH) . Sonoma Co. : 6 miles east of Petaluma , 38.236°, -122.525°, 29 December 1961, J. S. Buckett, m ( CAS) ; Monte Rio Trail above Pine Glade Road , 38.456°, -123.008°, 5 May–29 August 1996, D. Ubick et al., m ( CAS) ; Inverness , 36.100°, -122.857°, 8 November 1953, R. O. Schuster, m ( CAS) ; Samuel P. Taylor State Park , 38.024°, -122.721°, 8 December 1953, R. O. Schuster, m ( CAS) .

Notes: Chamberlin (1947) contrasted his S. carmela with S. nana stating that “...the anterior gonopods are trilobed instead of bilobed...” but it is clear from the illustrations that this apparent difference is due to Chamberlin’s only illustrating the very distal part of the anterior branch of the angiocoxite, probably in a mesal view, not lateral as he states; Loomis illustrated the whole structure in an obviously lateral view. Thus Chamberlin’s drawing misses the long, sinuous subterminal process. Nevertheless, Chamberlin’s sketchy drawing includes the characteristic comb-branch, not seen in Loomis’s, while Loomis illustrates the long, sinuous subterminal process, but not the comb-branch. Examining both holotypes showed that these supposed differences are not real. While all of the specimens we looked at were bleached by long preservation, the relatively fresh material studied by Chamberlin exhibited a color pattern: “A brown form with a narrow yellow stripe on each side at the level of the pores (sic!). Also showing a median dorsal pale line ( Chamberlin 1947, p. 9)”. Chamberlin seems to have forgotten for the moment that chordeumatidans do not have ozopores.

We found variation in the gonopods of specimens from different localities that initially made us think there might be more than one species. Specimens from Point Reyes Station ( Figs 22, 23 ) have longer comb-branches than others and the accessory spine of the long sinuous lateral process is also longer. In contrast, Bottcher’s Gap males ( Figs 24, 25 ) have much shorter, stouter processes in both positions and appear to have one long “tooth” separate from the others of the comb-branch. A male from near Petaluma ( Fig. 26 ) has fewer “teeth” and the basal branch of the long sinuous lateral process is apically bifid. That latter branch was illustrated by Loomis (1936) for nana , so this is probably only an apparent artifact of our view in making the drawings. The same might explain the smaller and fewer “teeth” of the comb-branch seen in those drawings. However, in the absence of enough geographic coverage to assess a multi-species hypothesis, we place all of our material in B. nana . CAS collections contain a number of female and juvenile specimens in the size range of B. nana , but we are reluctant to include these without males.

Figures

FIGURES 9–13. 9, 10. Amplaria californica (Cook, 1899), n. comb., male and female from Davenport, CA. 9. Male legpair 9, anterior view. 10. Female. 11–13. Bayaria nana (Loomis), n. comb., male from Bottcher’s Gap, CA. 11. Collum and first ring, dorsal view. 12. Head, ventrofrontal view. 13. Legpair 1, ventral view. Abbreviations: cp, coxal process; cx9, coxa 9; lab, labrum; m, mandible; t9, telopodite 9.

FIGURES 14–17. Bayaria nana (Loomis, 1936), n. comb., male from Bottcher’s Gap, CA. 14. Legpair 3, posterior view. 15. Left gonopod, lateral view. 16. Right gonopod, mesal view. 17. Tip of left gonopod, lateral view. Abbreviations: aac, anterior angiocoxite; ap, accessory spine; cf, coxal flask of leg3; f, flagellocoxite; pac, posterior angiocoxite; sp, sinuous spine; tp, terminal process.

FIGURES 18–26. Amplaria californica (Cook, 1899), n. comb., male from Davenport, CA. 18. Left gonopod, lateral view. 19. Left gonopod, mesal view. 20–26. Bayaria nana (Loomis), n. comb., gonopods. 20. Holotype of Striaria nana, right gonopod, lateral view. 21. Striaria carmela Chamberlin, 1941, holotype, mesal view. 22. From Point Reyes, CA, right gonopod, lateral view. 23. Same, mesal view. 24. From Boetticher’s Gap, right gonopod, lateral view. 25. Same, mesal view. 27. From near Petaluma, CA, right gonopod, lateral view. Abbreviations: aac, anterior angiocoxite; cc, colpocoxite; f, flagellocoxite; pac, posterior angiocoxite.