Brunsonia Loomis & Schmitt, 1971

Shear, William A., Richart, Casey H. & Wong, Victoria L., 2020, The millipede family Conotylidae in northwestern North America, with a complete bibliography of the family (Diplopoda, Chordeumatida, Heterochordeumatidea, Conotyloidea), Zootaxa 4753 (1), pp. 1-78 : 35

Brunsonia Loomis & Schmitt, 1971

Brunsonia Loomis & Schmitt, 1971:122 . Type species Brunsonia albertana ( Chamberlin, 1920) , by original designation of its junior synonym Brunsonia complexipes Loomis & Schmitt 1971 .

Conotyla, Shear, 1971 (“Atrolineata group,” not Conotyla Cook & Collins 1895 ): 80; 1976:5.

Diagnosis: Moderate-sized conotylids (10–15 mm long) distinct from other genera of the subfamily Conotylinae in the mostly reduced anterior gonopods coupled with the complex coxites of the posterior gonopods.

Notes: The genus includes the previously described species Brunsonia albertana ( Chamberlin, 1920) and B. atrolineata ( Bollman, 1893) . The latter species is known from western British Columbia, Canada; Shear (1971) failed to give specific collection data but mentioned Yoho, Glacier, and Mt. Robson National Parks. We have no new records of this species. Brunsonia albertana is a senior synonym of the designated type species, B. complexipes ( Shear 1971) , and occurs in southern Alberta and northwestern Montana ( Loomis & Schmitt 1971). Again, Shear (1971) does not provide detailed collection records but mentions Banff and Jasper National Parks. Records given below extend the distribution to western Washington and Oregon in the United States. The four new species described herein are all from the United States and represent considerable extensions of the generic range.

The gonopods of Brunsonia species show variations on a common theme. The anterior gonopods are small in some species, but nearly the size of the posterior gonopod coxites in at least one ( B. pulchra , n. sp.), in which they also approach the form of the anterior gonopods of Taiyutyla species. However, the posterior gonopod coxites are far more complicated in this species than in almost any other conotylid, fitting the Brunsonia plan. Except for B. digitata , n. sp., the anterior gonopods have an anteriolateral lobe set with small nodules, and all species have a deep pit or pore posteriolaterally in the anterior gonopods, with a narrow channel running from it to the tip of the gonopod; in B. chelanoparva , n. sp., this channel seems also to be occupied by a hair-like, grooved filament. We think this pit or pore is homologous with pores and gland openings that appear on the posterior gonopod coxites and tenth legpair, and which are also present in other species of conotylids.

The posterior gonopod coxites bear multiple features. The body of the coxa is globular, even swollen on the posterior side, and with one or two fimbriate branches on the lateral side. The coxite itself is massive, with various terminalia differing in each species; in B. albertana and B. chelanoparva , n. sp., there is a region set with irregular, distinct nodules. A long process (process a) extends laterally, and just dorsal to it is another process (c) with a pore at its base and a long channel leading from the pore along the process. Process b may be multiple, and may or may not parallel a, but when present it is shorter than a and is often “fuzzy” and set with many small cuticular projections. Modifications of the femora of the male pregonopodal legs range from none to knobs on pairs three to six.

New records of a previously described species