Noteremus Mesibov, 2009

Mesibov, Robert, 2009, A new millipede genus and a new species of Asphalidesmus Silvestri, 1910 (Diplopoda, Polydesmida, Dalodesmidea) from southern Tasmania, Australia, ZooKeys 7 (7), pp. 55-74 : 56-57

Genus Noteremus Mesibov , gen. n.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:61172C12-8688-4E14-AFD7-EDBC72F1CA1E

Type species: Noteremus summus Mesibov , sp. n., by present designation.

Other assigned species: N. infimus Mesibov , sp. n.

Diagnosis. Small to medium-sized dalodesmideans (to ca 20 mm long) with head + 19 rings (H+19); no sphaerotrichomes; pore formula 5, 7-18; slender, straight, unbranched telopodites with two terminal groups of closely packed, pointed, rod-like structures; and spinnerets with ventral setae at least twice as far apart as dorsal setae. Readily distinguished from Paredrodesmus by the presence of paranota as large lateral swellings on posterior segments, and from Procophorella by the absence of a narrow, well-defined, upwardly concave groove on the paranotal margin.

Etymology. Greek notos (‘south’) + eremos (‘solitary’), for the isolated southern distribution of the genus; gender masculine.

Remarks. Noteremus species are dalodesmidean in that the small, weakly joined gonocoxae are completely withdrawn into the aperture. However, the absence of sphaerotrichomes sets the genus apart from Dalodesmidae s. str. I therefore place Noteremus in the suborder Dalodesmidea without assigning it to a family. I did the same ( Mesibov 2003) with the Tasmanian H+19 genera Paredrodesmus Mesibov, 2003 and Procophorella Mesibov, 2003 , which like Noteremus have the unusual pore formula 5, 7-18. There are other similarities. In all species of all three genera, the ventral pair of spinneret setae is further apart than the dorsal pair ( Figs 4 A-4D; type species of Paredrodesmus and Procophorella illustrated as examples). In Noteremus , Procophorella and four of the six described Paredrodesmus species the solenomere is a short, acuminate process near the telopodite apex, and in Noteremus and five Paredrodesmus species the telopodite bears clusters of stout, pointed, rod-like structures. It thus seems likely that Noteremus , Paredrodesmus and Procophorella constitute a natural group, but I am reluctant to erect for them a new family or subfamily at this time (see discussion below on Asphalidesmus ).

Clusters of rod-like structures are present on gonopods in the dalodesmid genus Icosidesmus Humbert & de Saussure, 1869 . Attems (1940) referred to the structures as “starker Stifte”, which I translate as stout pegs or pins, while Johns (1964) called them “long, stout setae”. Jeekel (2006) examined two New Zealand Icosidesmus species and named the structures “bacilli” (rods) and the clusters “bacillaries”. A similar cluster on the gonopod of Tasmaniosoma armatum Verhoeff, 1936 was called “eine starke Borstengruppe” by Verhoeff (1936), i.e. a stout group of bristles. If these structures are homologous, it is interesting that they can appear in different places on the telopodite, i.e. at mid-height in parallel clusters in Icosidesmus and Tasmaniosoma , in upright parallel clusters in Noteremus , and in sub-apical, sometimes fan-like clusters in several Paredrodesmus species.

Figures

Figure 4. (A)-(D) Spinnerets, posterior view. (A) Noteremus summus sp. n., paratype male, QVM 23:46556; (B) N. infimus sp. n., paratype male, QVM 23:12969; (C) Paredrodesmus taurulus, male, QVM 23:46313; (D) Procophorella innupta, male, QVM 23:25456. (E) N. infimus sp. n., head of male from Growling Swallet cave, QVM 23:12118. (F) N. summus sp. n., paratype male, QVM 23:46556, posterior view of ring 5 showing legpair 5 bases (foreground) and legpair 4 bases (background). Scale bars: (A)-(D) = 0.05 mm; (E), (F) = 0.25 mm.