Poratophilus australis Silvestri, 1897

Redman, Guy T., Hamer, Michelle L. & Barraclough, David A., 2003, Revision of the Harpagophoridae (Diplopoda, Spirostreptida) of southern Africa, including descriptions of five new species, African Invertebrates 44 (2), pp. 203-277 : 269-270

Poratophilus australis Silvestri, 1897

Figs 191–192

Poratophilus australis Silvestri, 1897: 16 ; Attems 1914 1928; Demange 1983; Hoffman 1994; Hamer 1998.

Type material (not examined):Male and female syntypes, formerly housed in the Dresden Museum, probably destroyed by fire in 1943 (Hoffman 1994). Recorded as having been collected in ‘Africa meridionalis’ in the original description.

f

Description: Original description translated by Hoffman (1994):

Female: reddish-brown, pores black, head and pre-anal segment reddish. Epicranial suture distinct, face rugose, about six labral pores. Antenna attenuate, second article longest, third longer than fourth, sixth shorter than fifth, seventh hardly visible. Interocular space about equal to length of an eye, ocelli about 58, in eight rows. Collum laterally broad, anterior corner rounded, posterior obtuse, striation absent. Prozona of remaining segments with concentric striae anteriorly, punctate and obliquely striate posteriorly; suture fairly deep. Metazona with small sparse punctations dorsally, below the pores faintly striate. Sterna smooth. Pre-anal segment with long, attenuate somewhat upturned tail extending beyond anal valve. Latter margined. Hypoproct small, rounded. Legs rather short, with ventral setae. Male: mandibular stipes produced below, truncate, somewhat incised. Anterior corner of collum somewhat produced. Legs longer, articles four and five with soles. Sternum of gonopods elongate, trapeziform, distal margin of anterior and posterior plates rounded; telopodite [‘per anticum’] with a long curved arcuate process above, distal part bifurcate ( Figs 191, 192 ). Number of segments 46–48.

Remarks: The lack of type or additional P. australis material and the incomplete illustrations by Silvestri (1897) have limited a detailed investigation of the species, particularly in comparison with P. gorteri and Zinophora species. In terms of gonopod structure, P. australis differs from P. gorteri and Zinophora in the lack of telocoxal spines. The general structure of the telopodite and the posterior telocoxal fold in P. australis is very similar to that in P. gorteri .

Figures

Figs 191–192. Poratophilus australis Silvestri, 1897. From Hoffman (1994), adapted from original drawings by Silvestri (1897). 191. Oral view of gonopods. 192. Telopodite, aboral view. f = femoral spine; p = pectinophore; pa = paracoxite; sl = second lamella.