ABSTRACT
During a soil zoological expedition to São Tomé and Príncipe in 2010 by the California Academy of Sciences, millipedes of the genus Globanus were collected. Samples of G. marginescaber (Karsch, 1884) and G. integer (Karsch, 1884) were recovered in addition to those containing a new species. Globanus drewesi sp. nov. is described and additional records, illustrations, and descriptive notes are given for the other two species. A key to all three species of the genus is provided, and a distribution map is presented. The monotypic genus Lobogonus Demange, 1971, which includes L. trilobatus Demange, 1971, from Sierra Leone, mainland western Africa, is revalidated and removed from synonymy under Globanus. Lobogonus is illustrated from a type specimen.
ABSTRACT
The identity of Polyesmus cavicola Packard, 1877, described from a cave in Utah, is clarified through examination of a female lectotype and a newly collected adult male. The species is placed in the family Macrosternodesmidae and is designated as the type species of Packardesmus, n. gen.
Subject(s)
Arthropods , Animals , Female , Male , UtahABSTRACT
The monotypic taxon Xanthotropis n. gen. is established to accommodate Haematotropis media Golovatch, Hoffman Spelda, 2004, known only from the vicinity of Manaus, Brazil, as it is incompatible with both its originally assigned genus and Aphelidesmus Brölemann, 1898, a suggested alternative. Xanthotropis is defined primarily by minute teeth on paranota 2-4, a sublinear posterior margin of the telson, and an elongated, distally expanded/laminate acropodite. The Aphelidesmidae Brölemann, 1916, range from northeastern Mexico and Tobago to northern Brazil and southwestern Peru; a questionable more-northerly record, from Monterey, Mexico, requires verification with fresh material. One of two families of the polydesmidan superfamily Platyrhacoidea (Leptodesmidea), Aphelidesmidae comprises two subfamilies, the nominate and Amplininae Hoffman, 1954. The latter has been addressed by several authors, and we here review Aphelidesminae by providing full synonymies, a literature review, and a key to its four genera: Aphelidesmus Brölemann, 1898; Haematotropis and Ochrotropis, both by Jeekel, 2000; and Xanthotropis n. gen.
Subject(s)
Arthropods , Animals , Brazil , Mexico , Peru , Trinidad and TobagoABSTRACT
Twenty-four individuals of Narceus gordanus (Diplopoda: Spirobolidae) were collected in Ocala National Forest, FL, between November 2013 and July 2014. Each specimen was dissected to extract the intestine, which was removed and examined for parasitic nematodes. Coronostoma claireae n. sp. was collected from the hindgut and midgut of 10 specimens, and its morphology was examined with brightfield, differential interference contrast, phase contrast, and scanning electron microscopy. This species is separated from other Coronostoma spp. by the following characteristics: body length less than 3 mm; head sense organs pit-like; first annule long, extending past middle of corpus, width similar to that of second annule; basal bulb pyriform; eggs larger than 60 × 50 µm. This species is the first North American record for the genus Coronostoma, which is removed from Thelastomatoidea: Thelastomatidae and reassigned to Coronostomatidae on the basis of presumed apomorphies. A key is provided for known Coronostoma spp. The superfamily Coronostomatoidea is re-established for Coronostomatidae and Traklosiidae.
ABSTRACT
In the New World, the milliped family Platyrhacidae (Polydesmida) is known or projected for Central America south of southeastern Nicaragua and the northern » of South America, with disjunct, insular populations on Hispaniola (Haiti), Guadeloupe (Basse-Terre), and St. Lucia. Male near-topotypes enable redescription of Proaspis aitia Loomis, 1941, possibly endemic to the western end of the southern Haitian peninsula. The tibiotarsus of its biramous gonopodal telopodite bends strongly laterad, and the medially directed solenomere arises at midlength proximal to the bend. With a uniramous telopodite, P. sahlii Jeekel, 1980, on Guadeloupe, is not congeneric, and Hoffmanorhacus, n. gen., is erected to accommodate it. Nannorrhacus luciae (Pocock, 1894), on St. Lucia, is redescribed; also with a biramous telopodite, its tibiotarsus arises distad and diverges from the coaxial solenomere. The Antillean species do not comprise a clade and are only distantly related; rather than introductions, they plausibly reflect ancestral occurrences on the "proto-Antillean" terrain before it rifted from "proto-South America" in the Cretaceous/Paleocene, with fragmentation isolating modern forms on their present islands. Existing platyrhacid tribes are formally elevated to subfamilies as this category was omitted from recent taxonomies. Without unequivocal evidence to the contrary, geographically anomalous species should initially be regarded as indigenous rather than anthropochoric.
Subject(s)
Arthropods/anatomy & histology , Arthropods/classification , Animal Distribution , Animals , Arthropods/physiology , Biological Evolution , Central America , Female , Male , Phylogeny , South America , Species Specificity , West IndiesABSTRACT
A common terminology for the external morphological characters of centipedes (Chilopoda) is proposed. Terms are selected from the alternatives used in the English literature, preferring those most frequently used or those that have been introduced explicitly. A total of 330 terms are defined and illustrated, and another ca. 500 alternatives are listed.
