Prosopodesmus panporus Blower & Rundle, 1980

Mesibov, Robert, 2012, New species of Prosopodesmus Silvestri, 1910 (Diplopoda, Polydesmida, Haplodesmidae) from Queensland, Australia, ZooKeys 190, pp. 33-54 : 41-44

Prosopodesmus panporus Blower & Rundle, 1980 Figs 2E7

Prosopodesmus panporus Blower and Rundle, 1980: 27; figs 1-3, 6-8; table 1. Golovatch et al. 2009: 3.

Holotype.

Male, Palm House, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, London, UK, 16 May 1976, A.J. Rundle, extracted by hand from leaf litter in bed No. 1, slide-mounted in balsam, NHM. (Not examined.)

Paratypes.

1 male, details as for holotype, VMNH; 2 males, details as for holotype, IEA; 1 male and 1 female found in copula, details as for holotype but 15 April 1976, bed No. 2, NHM; 75 males, 41 females, 204 juveniles, details as for holotype but including Tullgren-extracted specimens, NHM. (Not examined.)

[Type details from Blower and Rundle (1980).]

Material examined.

9 males, 4 females, 9 km ENE of Mt Tozer, Qld, 12°43'S, 143°17'E [ ± 2 km], 5-10 July 1986, T. Weir, ANIC berlesate 1057, rainforest litter, ANIC 64-000118; 15 males, 1 female, same details but ANIC berlesate 1059, ANIC 64-000210.

Diagnosis.

Males with head + 19 rings, females with head + 20; adults ca 3.5-4 mm long; midbody metatergites typically with 3 transverse rows of 10-12 large tubercles; posterior portion of prozonite with small disks and microtubercles; ozopores on porosteles on all podous rings beginning with ring 5; gonopod telopodite bent posteriorly at midlength, lateral edge near tip with several rounded teeth.

Description.

The excellent description and illustrations of Blower and Rundle (1980) are reproduced below in Appendix 1. Here I add a few details:

Antennal sockets separated by ca 1X a socket diameter. Antennomere relative widths (5,6)>(2,3,4); relative lengths 6>5>(2,3,4). Head with vertex and frons microtuberculate; clypeus smooth, sparsely setose dorsally. Dorsal and lateral setae on collum, tergites and metatergites sparse, bisegmented, the tips flared and minutely toothed along distal edge. Anterior portion of prozonite with cellular structure, the cell walls with microvillose extensions (Fig. 2E; see also Fig. 3 of Blower and Rundle (1980) in Appendix 1); posterior portion of prozonite more or less uniformly microtuberculate, raised into low mounds each topped with a more or less round, convex disk 3-4X the diameter of a microtubercle. Limbus a thin, straight-edged lamella (Fig. 2E). Sternites as wide as long. Podomere relative lengths femur>(prefemur, femur)>(postfemur, tibia). 5+5 lobes along posterior edge of telson in male examined with SEM (including bilobed epiproct), rather than 6+6 as noted by Blower and Rundle (1980). Spinnerets (the four prominent setae...housed in a collar at the apex of the telson of Blower and Rundle (1980, p. 29)) recessed in individual chambers, basal sheaths with unnotched distal edges.

Gonopore midventral on leg 2 coxa, opening on low, truncate conical process. Prostatic groove ending in hairpad in posterior concavity of telopodite (Fig. 7).

Distribution.

So far known in Queensland from a single site in rainforest in the Iron Range Resource Reserve, ca 10 km northwest of Lockhart on the Cape York Peninsula (Fig. 8).