Thyropygus allevatus

Pimvichai, Piyatida, Enghoff, Henrik & Panha, Somsak, 2009, A revision of the Thyropygus allevatus group. Part 1: the T. opinatus subgroup (Diplopoda: Spirostreptida: Harpagophoridae), Zootaxa 2016, pp. 17-50 : 19-20

The Thyropygus allevatus group

As defined by Hoffman (1975), this group contains Thyropygus species in which both tibial and femoral spines are present on the gonopods, the tibial spine being very long and recurved proximad towards the femoral one.

Hoffman (1975) referred 11 taxa to this group and suggested that two further species, described in Cornugonus , might also belong to this group. Considering new species and taxonomic changes since 1975, the following species currently belong to the T. allevatus group (names given here are as in Jeekel 2006, except that carli is given full species status, cf. Enghoff, 2005):

Thyropygus allevatus ( Karsch, 1881) Thyropygus carli Attems, 1938

Thyropygus confusus Attems, 1938 Thyropygus cuisinieri Carl, 1917

Thyropygus globulus ( Demange, 1989) Thyropygus hoffmani ( Demange, 1961) Thyropygus ligulus ( Demange, 1961)

Cornugonus bifurcus ( Demange, 1986) Cornugonus enghoffi ( Demange, 1989) Cornugonus floweri Demange, 1961

Cornugonus implicatus Demange, 1961 Cornugonus inflexus Demange, 1989

Cornugonus opinatus ( Karsch, 1881)

Thyropygus allevatus ( Karsch, 1881) , the ‘ type species’ of the T. allevatus group, is a common species recorded from all over Thailand and also from Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and continental Malaysia ( Enghoff, 2005). However, it still presents many taxonomic problems. There are many synonyms of T. allevatus (see Enghoff 2005), and several subspecies have been recognized, but the considerable variation in both somatic characters and gonopods still needs a comprehensive analysis.