Nepalella marmorata, Golovatch & Geoffroy & Mauriès, 2006

Golovatch, Sergei I., Geoffroy, Jean-Jacques & Mauriès, Jean-Paul, 2006, Four new Chordeumatida (Diplopoda) from caves in China, Zoosystema 28 (1), pp. 75-92 : 77-80

Nepalella marmorata n. sp.

( Figs 1 A-C; 2; 3A, B)

TYPE MATERIAL. — Holotype: China, Sichuan Prov., Xin Long County, Snake Mouth Cave , No. 389, 5.VIII.1999, leg. J. & B. Lips, ♂ ( MNHN DB21 ). Paratypes: same locality, 1 ♂ ( MNHN DB21 ) ; 1 ♂ ( ZMUM) .

ETYMOLOGY. — To emphasize the prevailing marbled, brown coloration.

DIAGNOSIS. — Differs from congeners by peculiar male tarsal papillation, as well as certain details of leg and gonopod structure.

DESCRIPTION

Length c. 32 mm, maximum width 2.8 mm. Coloration rather pale brown, largely marbled; head, antennae (except for a pallid tip), dorsum and metazona below paraterga being slightly darker brown, pattern becoming somewhat annulate. Legs usually paler. Eye patches blackish.

Head width = segment 4 >> collum> segment 2> 3 <5 <6 = 20 <7; after segment 20 or 21, body very gradually tapering toward telson.

Body with 30 segments (29 pleurotergites, or rings, in terms of Enghoff et al. 1993). Head densely setose, clypeolabral region slightly convex.Eye patches triangular, each composed of 15-17 convex ocelli. Antennae very long and slender ( Figs 1A ; 2A ), reaching beyond body segment 5 dorsally; antennomere 7 with a peculiar flattened seta dorsally in distal third. Gnathochilarium without promentum ( Fig. 2B ).

Collum usual, obcordate in shape, with rudimentary paraterga ( Fig. 1A ).Tegument smooth, shining, only prozona distinctly and densely striolate transversely. Metatergal setation 3 + 3, typical, macrochaetae short, rather thick but pointed, positioned on minute knobs; stricture between pro- and metazona shallow, inconspicuous ( Fig. 1 A-C).

Paraterga small dorsolateral swellings/shoulders, not set off by peritremata, rather regularly rounded in dorsal view ( Fig. 1 A-C).

CIX (15) = 0.58; MIX (15) = 1.26; MA (15) ≈ 160°; PIX (15) impossible to evaluate due to insufficiently developed paraterga.

Axial suture distinct, pallid, usual; segment 7 only very slightly broader than adjacent ones, conspicuous due to slightly upturned, ridge-like pleural arches, without ventral apophyses. Limbus regularly microdentate, quite distinct ventrolaterally; similar minute denticles covering entire surface of pleural ridges.

Legs long and slender, slightly longer in male, c. 1.4 times as long as midbody height. Legs 1 and 2 slightly reduced as usual, tarsi with usual ventral brushes but without papillae; coxa 2 perforated by gonopore orifice. All subsequent legs conspicuously papillate over caudal face ofventral half ( Fig. 2 C- E, G, H). Legs 3-7 distinctly incrassate, pairs 3 and 4 particularly so. Femora 3 and 4 each with a small but evident mushroom-like protuberance at midway ventrally ( Fig. 2C ). Coxae 5-7 microgranulate ventrally, prefemora 5-7 each with a microgranulate bulge dorso-parabasally ( Fig. 2D ). Coxa 7 and trochanter 7 with a distoventral digitiform outgrowth ( Fig. 2E, F ). Legs 10 and 11 with coxal glands; coxae 10 conspicuously enlarged and setose ( Fig. 2G ); each coxa 11 with a large, apically pilose, coniform funnel with a long parabasal seta on front face; prefemur 11 with a strong parabasal process ventrally ( Fig. 1H ). Claws invariably long, sabre-shaped, simple.

Anterior gonopods (leg-pair 8) as usual very strongly reduced, sternum with a median and a lateral lobule, coxites spike-like ( Fig. 2I ).

Posterior gonopods (leg-pair 9) hypertophied ( Fig. 3A, B ), with two ear-shaped folds at base on front face of colpocoxites and two highly conspicuous, extremely ramified, plumose, fimbriate, bush-like structures at base on caudal face; colpocoxites prominent, about as high as telopodites, with three longitudinal lamellae on caudal face, median lamella micropilose; telopoditomere 1 particularly strongly setose on posterior face, telopoditomere 2 infuscate and with a vestigial segment apically.

REMARKS

Nepalella marmorata n. sp. differs from the similarly large and brown N. magna Shear, 2002 – the only congener based on females ( Shear 2002), and also coming from southern China (Yunnan) – primarily in the lesser number of ocelli per eye patch (15-17 versus 25). Regrettably, no material of the opposite sex of either species is available to reveal further differences (see also Key below).

Based on the clearly pigmented body and ocelli, N. marmorata n. sp. seems to be only a troglophile.

Figures

FIG. 1. — A-C, Nepalella marmorata n. sp., paratype ♂; D-F, N. grandis n. sp., paratype ♂; G, N. grandis n. sp., paratype ♀; A, D, anterior body end, dorsal view; B, E, midbody segments, dorsal view; C, F, same, lateral view; G, vulva, front view. Scale bars: A-F, 2.0 mm; G, 0.4 mm.

FIG. 2. — Nepalella marmorata n. sp., paratype ♂: A, antenna; B, gnathochilarium, ventral view; C, leg 4, front view; D, leg 5, caudal view; E, leg 7, front view; F, coxa 7, caudal view; G, leg 10, front view; H, leg 11, front view; I, anterior gonopods (leg-pair 8), front view. Scale bar: 0.8 mm.

FIG. 3. — Nepalella marmorata n. sp., paratype ♂, posterior gonopods (leg-pair 9), front (A) and caudal (B) views, respectively. Scale bar: 0.4 mm.