Siphonocryptus zigzag, Enghoff, Henrik, 2010

Enghoff, Henrik, 2010, A new strikingly coloured species of Siphonocryptus, sixth of its order (Diplopoda: Siphonocryptida), Zootaxa 2681, pp. 66-68 : 66-67

Siphonocryptus zigzag , new species

( Figs. 1 , 3)

Material studied. Holotype female, MALAYSIA, PAHANG, Cameron Highlands,”ORANGE ASLI vill.” env. Gunung Perdah [Mt.], 4° 29.2N, 101° 22.1E, 1575 m, sifting leaf litter in shallow ravine, 2–14.v.2009, Petr Baňař leg. (Natural History Museum of Denmark, Zoological Museum, University of Copenhagen, ZMUC 00101324).

Diagnosis. A species of Siphonocryptus with a dorsal colour pattern including two triangular lateral areas each covering 7 pleurotergites.

Description. Female holotype with 32 pleurotergites, body length 4.3 mm, max. width 2.6 mm. Dorsal colour pattern distinctive: ground colour pale yellowish, almost transparent along margins of body. Tergites 2–4 entirely dark brown. A mid-dorsal longitudinal band, running uninterrupted from tergite 5 to penultuimate tergum (both included) and covering ca. 1/6 of the body width, also dark brown. Lateral parts of tergites 14–31 medium brown. On most of these tergites the darkened areas extend to ca. halfway between lateral margin and middle of tergites, leaving a pale band ca. as broad as mid-dorsal dark band. On tergites 19–20, and again on tergites 26–27, however, the darkened areas become gradually narrower, resulting in a distinct-zig-zag boundary between dark and light ( Fig. 1 ). On tergites 28–31, the darkened lateral areas extend almost to the median dark brown band, leaving only a narrow light parasagittal stripe. The last, large tergite 32 has narrow darkened lateral margins but is otherwise pale.

In all other respects similar to the other species in the genus.

Notes. Siphoncryptus zigzag differs from its two known congeners by its remarkable colour pattern. For comparison, the colour pattern of S. compactus is illustrated in Fig. 2 . The colour pattern of S. zigzag will be further discussed in a forthcoming paper on comparable colour patterns in millipedes (Enghoff in prep.). In Fig. 3, the pleurotergite numbers and maximal body diameter of known specimens of Siphonocryptus are shown, based on the new species and data from Enghoff & Golovatch (1995). Although the number of specimens is small, it looks as if S. zigzag is more similar to S. latior in body shape (very broad) than to S. compactus . The two former species have both been found in peninsular Malaysia, their type (and only known) localities lying ca. 125 km apart.

Figures

FIGURE 1 – 2. Siphonocryptus spp., dorsal view. 1: S zigzag n. sp., holotype; 2: S. compactus, specimen from MALAYSIA, W SUMATRA, Bukittinggi, Gn. Singgalang, 2100 – 2600 m, A. Riedel leg. (ZMUC 00101325), without front end, hind end not visible. Head end of both specimens to the right. Scale bars = 1 mm.