Hoplatessara luxuriosa (Silvestri, 1895)

Mesibov, Robert & Car, Catherine A., 2013, Hoplatessara luxuriosa (Silvestri, 1895) (Diplopoda, Polydesmida, Paradoxosomatidae) is native to Australia, not New Guinea, ZooKeys 329, pp. 1-8 : 2-4

Hoplatessara luxuriosa (Silvestri, 1895) Figs 1-3, 5-8

Strongylosoma luxuriosum Silvestri 1895: 643.

Strongylosoma luxuriosum Attems 1898: 318.

Strongylosoma luxuriosum Attems 1914: 221.

Strongylosoma (?) luxuriosum Attems 1915: 22.

Strongylosoma luxuriosum Chamberlin 1920: 119.

Antichiropus luxuriosus Attems 1937: 271. [comb. n.]

Hoplatessara luxuriosum [sic] Jeekel 1956: 184; figs 1-4, p. 186. [comb. n.]

Hoplatessara luxuriosa Jeekel 1967: 377. [Lectotype chosen]

Hoplatessara luxuriosa Jeekel 1968: 23, 25.

Hoplatessara luxuriosa Jeekel 1981: 51.

Hoplatessara luxuriosa Jeekel 1984: 38, 43.

Hoplatessara luxuriosa Jeekel 2003: 28.

Lectotype.

Male, lacking segments 8 and 9, Sorong, New Guinea [see Discussion], L.M. D’Albertis, MCG.

Paralectotypes.

1 female, 1 female fragment, 1 male fragment, same details, MCG.

Material examined.

1 male, Sunny Corner State Forest near Bathurst, NSW, 33°24'S, 149°51'E ± 2 km, 4 December 1972, J.S. Disney, under pine log, AM KS.18542; 1 male, near Merrill, SW of Crookwell, NSW [locality text not on label], 34°40'S, 149°17'E ± 2 km, 20 April 1990, [collector uncertain], AM KS.106310; 6 males, 2 females, 1 juvenile, 5 km NE of Colo, NSW [locality text not on label], 33°45'S, 149°17'E ± 2 km, 653 m a.s.l., 20 April 1990, L. Kirwan, AM KS.106320; 2 males, Sunny Corner near Bathurst, NSW, 33°24'S, 149°53'E ± 2 km, 24-27 January 1997, S.J. Fellenberg, AM KS.96088; 1 male, 1 female, 1 stadium 7 female, Daylight Creek Road near Sunny Corner, NSW, 33°21'51"S, 149°53'39"E ± 100 m, 1050 m a.s.l., 30 April 2013, R. Mesibov and T. Moule, AM KS.120531; 1 male, 1 female, Sunny Corner Road near Sunny Corner, NSW, 33°23'58"S, 149°54'22"E ± 25 m, 1210 m a.s.l., same date and collectors, AM KS.120532.

Description.

Jeekel (1956, 1967) gave admirably complete redescriptions of the specimens examined by Silvestri (1895), and here we add only a few details:

Live and freshly preserved males and females (Figs 1, 2) with pale brownish-yellow ground colour, lighter ventrally; darker brown on prozonites and anterior portion of metazonites, darkest at waist and dorsally; head dark brown dorsally, lightening ven trally; collum dark brown ringed with pale brownish-yellow; antennae dark brown, lighter basally; legs with coxae, prefemur and basal portion of femur pale yellow, and postfemur, tibia and tarsus brown, darkening distally; preanal ring dark brown with pale yellow epiproct; hypoproct light brown, anal valves dark brown ringed with pale brownish-yellow.

Small pleural keels on female rings 2-4, more prominent on rings 3 and 4; traces of keels on male rings 2-4.

Male ring 6 sternite with transverse brushes of long setae between legpairs 6 and 7. Male ring 5 sternite with sparse transverse brush of long setae between legpair 5, well-separated from sternal lamella between legpair 4.

Spiracles on diplosegments of males and females well-separated (Fig. 3); posterior spiracle crater-like, anterior spiracle rim oval (long axis more or less dorsoventral), dorsal portion of rim extended posterolaterally around emergent, finely textured, subspherical spiracle.

Gonopods (Figs 5-8) as described by Jeekel (1956) and illustrated in posterior view (Fig. 4 in Jeekel 1956); the slight bulge on the medial side of the femoral process is partly obscured in posterior view (Fig. 5) and is shown more clearly in anterior view (Fig. 7).

Distribution and habitat.

Occurs in the high country west of the Blue Mountains in New South Wales (Fig. 9) in grassy eucalypt forest (Fig. 4) and plantations of Pinus radiata , where adults were found in 2013 sheltering under logs and small pieces of fallen wood or bark. We have not yet confirmed by further collecting the two 1990 localities south of Bathurst (Fig. 9); if these are correct, the north-south range of Hoplatessara luxuriosa is ca 150 km.

Remarks.

The structure of the anterior spiracle on diplosegments (Fig. 3) is very similar to that found in other australiosomatine paradoxosomatids [see figs 2A, 2B, 3C in Mesibov (2009)].