Afropachyiulus mauriesi, Akkari & Enghoff, 2008

Akkari, N. & Enghoff, H., 2008, Notes on the genus Afropachyiulus Schubart, 1960 (Diplopoda: Julida: Julidae) with a description of a new species from Algeria and a redescription of A. comatus (Attems, 1899), Zootaxa 1872, pp. 29-36 : 33-35

Afropachyiulus mauriesi n. sp.

( Fig. 5–9)

Material examined. Holotype: adult male; Algeria, North East , Annaba, (ex. Bona), N36°54, E07°47, alt. 22 m, 1863, F. Meinert leg. (Natural History Museum of Denmark — ZMUC) Paratypes: 1 subadult female, 7 males (5 of the males in pieces), data as holotype ( ZMUC) .

Etymology: The species is named after Jean-Paul Mauriès for his devotion to millipede taxonomy and for making an invaluable contribution to Pachyiulini taxonomy.

Diagnosis: A species of the A. comatus group with 2 frontal setae, a whorl of ca. 12 densely set setae at the metatergal margin, length of setae 0.11–0.13 × body height; cavity between terminal processes of opisthomerital process smooth.

Description (All measurements in mm)

Body yellowish (colour probably changed after long preservation in ethanol), antennae and telson paler, prozonites glossy, metazonites deeply furrowed and darker. Ventral side and legs yellowish. Body length measured along the line of ozopores: 13.3 (males) and 12.3 (immature female); vertical diameter at the 15 th body ring: 0.9–1.5 (males) and 1.1 (immature female); Ratio length/height: 14 (male). Number of podous body rings: 35–44 (males) and 47 (female). Apodous rings: 2–4. Head with two frontal setae. A whorl of short setae at the margin of metazonite ( Fig. 5). Number of setae ca. 12. Length of setae: 0.13 × body height (male) and 0.11 body height (female). Defense glands showing as prominent brownish spots. Ozopores opening behind the suture. Male mandibles without protruding lobes. Ocelli missing. Length of antennae 1.4 × body height (male holotype) and 1 × body height (female). Length of legs 0.8 × body height (male), 0.6 × body height (female p). Male legs with postfemoral sole pads. Telson rounded, with an extensive cover of long setae, no preanal projection.

Anterior gonopods ( Fig. 6): Mesal margin almost straight, lateral margin convex, protruding as a large bulge. Basal shaft with parallel margins, almost 2/3 broad as the bowl. Ridge almost parallel-sided, with blunt terminal projection. Lateral prominence low, oblique. Tip of gonopod pointed. Both denticles almost of the same size, markedly serrated marginally and fused at the basis.

Posterior gonopods ( Fig. 7–9): Mesomerital process simple, slenderer and rather longer than in A. comatus , also bent but with a pointed tip. Opisthomerital process with basally subparallel margins, apically divided into a triangular anterior process with a twisted acuminate tip and a triangular posterior process with a fine pointed tip. Lateral ridge running across posterior process. Lateral edge horizontal and finely serrated, running under anterior process. No spines observed on the surface of the concavity surrounded by the lateral and posterior processes of the opisthomerite.

Remarks.

The three species groups suggested above help to get an overview of the variation within Afropachyiulus , but future (phylogenetic) studies may well result in a totally different arrangement. For example, the A. comatus -group is virtually identical to Dolichoiulus sensu Enghoff (1992) , except for the lack of metazonital setae in Dolichoiulus . Another very similar genus is Anagaiulus Enghoff, 1992 , which has metazonital setae but lacks frontal setae. Strasser (1970) mentioned that Elbaiulus Verhoeff, 1930 , shows many similarities with Afropachyiulus . Strasser’s redescription (1971) of E. chrysopygus (Berlese, 1882) , senior synonym of the type species of Elbaiulus , however, shows quite different gonopods.

Schubart (1960) included lack of ventral pads on male legs in his diagnosis of Afropachyiulus . However, all the information we have about the type species, A. oraniensis , is that the second pair of male legs lacks these pads. For A. lepineyi, Verhoeff (1936) mentioned that the anteriormost pairs of legs lack pads, but Strasser (1970) noticed that although the second pair of male legs in A. maritimus lacks pads, these are present on the tibia of the following pairs. A. comatus , like the new species we describe here, has ventral pads on the postfemora and tibiae (second pair only on tibiae).

While Afropachyiulus remains a very poorly defined genus, the A. comatus group appears quite welldefined. The study of recently collected specimens of A. comatus reveals a few differences from the syntypes of comatus as described by Attems (see Table 2); in particular in the number of the frontal setae: only 2 were observed on the new material while 4 up to 6 were described by Attems (1899). The frontal setae were unfortunately broken on the studied syntypes. However, this character may show intraspecific variation, as noticed in the nemasomatid genus Orinisobates by Enghoff (1985). On the other hand, the new species we describe here, although very similar to A. comatus , differs clearly in metazonital setation and also in the surface structure of the tip of the opisthomerital process (see Table 2).