Otostigmus loriae Silvestri, 1895

Lewis, John G. E., 2014, A review of the orientalis group of the Otostigmus subgenus Otostigmus Porat, 1876 (Chilopoda: Scolopendromorpha: Scolopendridae), Zootaxa 3889 (3), pp. 388-413 : 397-398

Otostigmus loriae Silvestri, 1895

(Figs 32–37)

Otostigmus loriae Silvestri, 1895 , 627. Papua New Guinea (Moroka, 1300 m). O. loriae: Kraepelin, 1903 , 23. New Guinea.

O. bakeri Chamberlin, 1921 , 51. Phillipines.

O. (O.) loriae: Attems, 1930 , 140. Papua New Guinea, Indonesia (Aru Islands: Doboe). O. (Parotostigmus) bakeri: Attems, 1930 , 155.

O. loriae: Chamberlin, 1939 , 4. Indonesia, Irian Jaya (Pionierbivak). O. loriae: Chamberlin, 1944b , 3 (in list).

O. bakeri: Lewis. 2002 , 36, 1704, figs 60-64.

O. (O.) loriae: Schileyko, 1992 , 7 (in table).

O. (O.) loriae loriae: Schileyko, 1995 , 81. Fig. 9 (description). Vietnam. O. (O.) loriae loriae: Schileyko, 2007 , 79 Vietnam, Cambodia, West Malaysia (Pahang), Indonesia (Sumatra). O. loriae loriae: Tran et al., 2013 , 224 (checklist). Vietnam.

Material examined. HNHM. Otostigmus lorice [sic!] Silv. Typ. 1124-1897 Biró Nova Guinea. [This appears to be a recent label]. The invoice gives: Otostigmus lorice (oriae?) Silvestri. Typ. 1124-1893 (sic!) Leg. L. Biró Nova Guinea [ Papua New Guinea].

Description. (Data from Kraepelin’s (1903) redescription in parentheses where relevant). Length 34 (48) mm. With 20[d]+22 (21) antennal articles, the basal 2.33 (2 ¼) glabrous dorsally (Fig. 32), the distal articles elongated, ratio of length to width of antennomere 12 1.7:1. Forcipular coxosternal tooth-plates with 8+8 teeth (Fig. 33) (6+6 or 7+7), trochanteroprefemoral processes with two medial denticles on the left, none on right.

Tergites (Fig. 34) with complete paramedian sutures from 6 (5), a median keel from 6, well marked from 11; spinules from 5, (finely spine-streaked from 5 or 6) lateral corrugations from 9, margination weak from 8–11 (9), well-marked from12–21. Ultimate tergite with a posterior median longitudinal depression (Fig. 35).

Sternites with short fine paramedian sutures occupying anterior 37% of S16 (with short anterior paramedian sutures), without depressions. Sternite of ultimate leg-bearing segment with sides converging and posterior margin slightly concave (Fig. 36).

Coxopleural process short with two apical, one subapical and one lateral spine on right, three apical, one subapical and two lateral on left (Fig. 37) (three-spined, laterally one, dorsal without spine).

First pair and some other legs including the ultimate legs missing. With one tibial and two tarsal spurs to 18 at least (1–18 with two tarsal spurs). (Ultimate leg prefemoral spines VL 3, VM 3, DL 2, CS 1).

Remarks. The Hungarian Natural History Museum specimen described here is not the type despite being so labelled (“typ”). It was collected by Lajos Biró who spent six years in Papua New Guinea at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries (Zoltan Korsos e-mail dated 11.10.2002). The type material was collected by Dott. Lamberto Loria.

Attems (1930) gave New Guinea: Moroka and Aru Islands: Doboe ( Indonesia SW of New Guinea). Presumably he saw further specimens although apart from giving 21 or 22 rather than 21 antennal articles his description is identical to Kraepelin’s (1903) who gave only New Guinea

Schileyko’s (1995) description of the Vietnamese O. loriae loriae differs somewhat from the above viz. length up to 60 mm, “coxopleuron with three apical and (sometimes) 1–3 lateral spines. A single spine at coxopleural posterior margin ... Prefemur of last legs with ... ventrolateral (6 spines) and ventromedial (4 spines). In his ( Schileyko 1995, 2007) keys he separated O. loriae from O. multidens as follows: “incomplete margination starting from tergites 6–8; terminal prefemur with one corner spine: O. loriae . Incomplete margination starting from terga 14–16; terminal prefemur with two corner spines: O. multidens .” He kindly checked specimens in the Zoological Museum of the Moscow Lomonosov State University from Pahang (W. Malaysia), Sumatra, Vietnam and Cebu Is. ( Philippines) and confirmed that all have tergite spinules (Schileyko email dated 06.9.2012). He noted that in the subadult Cebu specimen “anterior tergites with 3 and posterior tergites with 5 well-developed longitudinal keels (similar to the such of O. scaber , but the latter has 7 keels). Also the tergal spines seem not to be so numerous” as in his other specimens. Schileyko concluded that “if multidens really has no tergal spines it can definitely be separated from loriae by this character + 2 vs 1 corner spines on the ultimate prefemur.” He observed that “tergal margination is actually too variable” to separate the species.”

The specimens of O. multidens described below have only a single corner spine on the ultimate prefemur thus the only character separating the two species is the presence or absence of tergite spinules. Minute tergite spinules can be overlooked. The fact that this character is variable in other species and the overlap in distribution between O. loriae and O. multidens suggests that they may be conspecific. Indeed Kraepelin (1903) described loriae as “in a way, a spine-streaked multidens ” and loriae is here regarded as a junior subjective synonym of O. multidens .