Two new and unusual genera of millipedes (Diplopoda: Polydesmida) from Tasmania, Australia
Author
Mesibov, Robert
text
Zootaxa
2003
368
1
32
journal article
51241
10.5281/zenodo.157087
2e793b2d-9ce7-47f0-8590-69ee8ec38fd2
11755326
157087
Paredrodesmus australis
n. sp.
Figs. 6
,
8
, map
Fig. 12
B
Holotype
:
Male
,
Coopers Creek
, DN507635 (
42°46’45”S
,
146°23’50”E
),
460m
,
23.ii.1994
,
R. Mesibov
,
QVM 23
:41168.
Paratypes
: Male, details as for
holotype
,
AM
KS86290
;
male,
Kallista Creek
, DN625651 (
42°45’56”S
,
146°32’30”E
),
300m
,
21.ix.2002
,
R. Mesibov
,
QVM 23
:25464.
Other material examined
:
3 males
. See Appendix for details.
Diagnosis
: Distinguished from other
Paredrodesmus
by the unique form of the gonopod.
FIGURE 8.
SEM views of
Paredrodesmus
gonopods
in situ
. (Left)
P. australis
n. sp.
, QVM 23:41169; anterior to right, scale bar = 0.5 mm. (Right)
P. bicalcar
n. sp.
, QVM 23:41178; anterior to right, scale bar = 0.35 mm, ‘s’ = solenomerite.
Description
: As for the genus. Males
10–11 mm
long, 0.8–0.9 mm in maximum vertical diameter. In alcohol, wellcoloured adults are pale with reddish mottling on distal anntennomeres and metazonites, notably around ozopores. Antennal bases separated by
ca
. 1.25 times a base diameter, antennomere 6 about one and a quarter times the width of 5. Legpairs 6 and 7 with a wide gap between opposing coxae, legpair 5 with a narrower gap; flexed gonopods reach to the gap between legpairs 5 and 6. Genital opening on leg 2 coxa on a prominent mesal projection (
Fig. 6
A). Gonopod aperture with rear margin raised in the middle. Telopodites (
Fig. 8
) closely pressed together but not fused, the contact surfaces flat, the outer surfaces rounded. Telopodite base broad with a few short and long setae; distal portion of telopodite arising medially, curving caudad at about half its length and expanding to a broad tip with slightly rounded distal surface, the very small, bluntly pointed solenomerite arising in the middle of this surface. The prostatic groove runs along the mesal surface of the telopodite before abruptly turning laterad across the broad top of the telopodite to the solenomerite. A comb of
ca
. 50 variably long, peglike structures arises from a line circling the edge of the telopodite tip and extending proximad along the anteromesal surface. The comb can be divided into two sections according to peg orientation: directed proximad and laterad on the posterior edge of the telopodite tip, laterad elsewhere.
Distribution and habitat
: In wellrotted litter, humus and richly organic soil over
ca
.
600 km
2 in
south central
Tasmania
from
80 m
to
ca
.
600 m
, in wet eucalypt forest and
Nothofagus
rainforest (
Fig. 12
B). Cooccurs with
P. b i c a l c a r
. This is an uncommon species whose known range is likely to increase with further sampling.
Etymology
: Latin
australis
, southern, adjective. This species is restricted to southern
Tasmania
.