Bactrodesmus Cook, 1896

Golovatch, Sergei I., Fiemapong, Armand Richard Nzoko & VandenSpiegel, Didier, 2019, Trichopolydesmidae from Cameroon, 2: A species-level reclassification of Afrotropical trichopolydesmids (Diplopoda, Polydesmida), with two new species and two new records from Cameroon, and two new species from the Nimba Mountains, Guinea, ZooKeys 891, pp. 31-59 : 31

Bactrodesmus Cook, 1896

Type species.

Bactrodesmus claviger Cook, 1896, by subsequent monotypy, Liberia.

As reiterated recently ( Golovatch et al. 2018), this genus was first proposed as a nomen nudum ( Cook 1896a), but then properly typified ( Cook 1896b). The sole useful information contained in the original description of B. claviger , which was accompanied by no illustrations, concerns its small size (7 mm long, 1 mm wide), typically micropolydesmid facies (small paraterga, large and clubbed tergal setae arranged in three transverse rows etc.), strongly enlarged gonocoxae that fully conceal the telopodites and, above all, ♂ legs 2, especially their tibiae, greatly enlarged compared to others ( Cook 1896b). No number of body segments has been given.

Below we put on record a new Bactrodesmus coming from the Guinean portion of the Nimba Mountains. This allows us to unequivocally clarify the identity of the genus and provide a new diagnosis.

Diagnosis.

At least ♂ tibiae 2, as well as both gonopodal coxae and gonocoel hypertrophied, telopodites being strongly sunken and their distal outgrowths remaining nearly fully concealed inside gonocoel. Only one prominent, basal fold/branch (bb = sp) present, albeit fully concealed as well; a simple and short solenomere branch (sl) protected by bb mesally and by a clearly 2-segmented lateral part laterally.

Remark.

This genus is presumably among the most advanced representatives of Afrotropical Trichopolydesmidae in showing several autapomorphies.