Iulidesmus Silvestri

Hoffman, Richard L., 2012, On the identity of the generic name Iulidesmus Silvestri, 1895 (Polydesmida: Paradoxosomatidae), Zootaxa 3204, pp. 65-68 : 66

Iulidesmus Silvestri

Iulidesmus Silvestri, 1895 , Ann. Mus. Civ. Stor. Nat. Genova, 34: 773. Type species: Iulidesmus typicus Silvestri, 1895 , by monotypy and indication of the specific name.

Mestosoma Silvestri, 1897 , Boll. Mus. Torino, 12(283): 3. Type species: Strongylosoma salvadori Silvestri, 1895 , by original designation. New synonymy.

Julidesmus [sic]: Chamberlin, 1957, Lunds Univ. Â rsskr. NF 2, v. 53 (8): 11.

As presently defined, the species of “ Mestosoma " are rather variable in terms of gonopod structure, and Jeekel (1963) distinguished a number of groups and subgroups. Later (1968) he elevated Group 1 to generic rank under the existing name Catharosoma . If future refinements in the classification result in generic recognition for some of the remaining groups, Mestosoma might be resurrected to cover the species in Group 5, subgroups 1, 2, and 3. Names are also available for some of the other groups that might merit generic status. For the present I defer formally synonymizing any of them with Iulidesmus until the male characters of I. typicus are known.

Silvestri resorted to the absence of paranota to distinguish I. typicus from some other species in the Balzan material (even from Coroico itself) which he described in Strongylosoma . While the relative development of paranota is scarcely, per se, to be considered a generic character, several species recently described from central-western Bolivia (e.g., differens , forsteri ) are stated to lack paranota and would have been referred to Iulidesmus by Silvestri. Any one of them is thus a potential junior synonym of typicus .