Trichopeltis intricatus, Liu, Weixin, Golovatch, Sergei & Tian, Mingyi, 2017

Liu, Weixin, Golovatch, Sergei & Tian, Mingyi, 2017, Three new cavernicolous species of the millipede genus Trichopeltis Pocock, 1894 from southern China (Diplopoda, Polydesmida, Cryptodesmidae), ZooKeys 710, pp. 1-14 : 4-8

Trichopeltis intricatus sp. n. Figs 4, 5, 6

Type material.

Holotype> (SCAU), China, Yunnan Province, Kunming City, Shilin County, Guishan Town, Haiyi I Dong Cave, 24°38'50"N, 103°32'49"E, 1890 m, 16.VI.2015, leg. Mingyi Tian, Weixin Liu, Xinhui Wang & Mingruo Tang.

Etymology.

To emphasize the complex gonopods; adjective.

Diagnosis.

Differs from all congeners except T. bellus sp. n. by the unusually densely setose gonopodal coxa, and from all species by the particularly complex gonopod which shows a number of peculiar processes and lobules (Fig. 4). See also the Key below.

Description.

Length of holotype ca. 10 mm, width of midbody pro- and metazonae 1.5 and 2.5 mm, respectively. Coloration in alcohol nearly pallid. Body with 20 segments (Fig. 4). All characters as in the previous species (Figs 1 3), except as follows. In width, head <collum <segment 2 <3 4 <5 <6 <7; thereafter body increasingly tapered towards telson (Fig. 4).

Head sparsely pilose. Antennae very short and clavate, reaching behind segment 2 when stretched dorsally; in length, antennomere 6> 3> 4 = 5 = 2 = 7 = 1 (Fig. 5B).

Collum fan-shaped, inverted subtrapeziform, incompletely covering the head from above, with five irregular transverse rows of small, round, setigerous tubercles (Fig. 5A). Marginal lobules on collum: 15+15 small, microvillose, nearly sharp anteriorly and 6+6 similarly small, but squarish laterally.

Mid-dorsal regions on segments 2 16 with five regular, transverse rows of about 15+15 similarly small, setigerous tubercles extending onto paraterga, in frontal and caudal rows smaller than others (Fig. 4A & C).

Paraterga 3 5 with 4 5 small, dentiform, lateral and 5 6 much larger, squarish, caudal lobules. Similarly, paraterga 2 and 6 16 with 6 lateral, 6 7 caudal lobules.

Tergal setae simple, very short and mostly abraded (Fig. 4A & C).

Epiproct short, conical (Fig. 5D).

Gonopod aperture subcordiform (Figs 4B, 5D).

Legs short and robust (Figs 4 5), produced beyond paratergal lateral margin, about 1.2 times as long as midbody height.

Gonopods (Fig. 6) very complex. Coxa short and squarish, but unusually densely setose laterally, much like in the previous species. Prefemora densely setose, but with more numerous longer setae. Femorite only slightly curved caudally at base with a clearly tripartite femoral process (p), branches p1 (mesal) and p2 (lateral) being subequal, long and rounded at end, branch p3 being basalmost slender and acuminate at end. Acropodite longer than p, at base with a long, slender, apically mushroom-shaped lobe (m) on lateral side, and an even longer, slender, finger-shaped, mesal, apical lobe (l), as well as a group of lobules (lo) between p and m. Seminal groove (sg) entirely mesal, terminating without pulvillus near lo, forming no distinct solenomere.

Remark.

Based on the pallid body, this species may be a troglobite.