Rhysida immarginata immarginata (Porat, 1876)

Schileyko, Arkady A. & Stoev, Pavel E., 2016, Scolopendromorpha of New Guinea and adjacent islands (Myriapoda, Chilopoda), Zootaxa 4147 (3), pp. 247-280 : 255-257

5. Rhysida immarginata immarginata (Porat, 1876)

Figs 19–21

Rhysida nuda immarginata: Attems, 1930: 190 ; R. immarginata: Koch, 1985: 212 , 213;

R. immarginata immarginata: Lewis, 2001: 45 ;

R. immarginata immarginata: Waldock & Lewis, 2014: 75 .

Material. Papua New Guinea, Madang Province , Madang District, [environs of Madang] Nagada , 2 (s)ad [spm 1, 2 (larger one)], 20.08.1998, leg. P. Drozd , No. 7091.

Range. According to Bonato et al. (2016) the species is known from Sudan, Congo, Sri Lanka, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala. Attems (1930) recorded it also from Sunda Islands , India, Myanmar, The Philippines and Venezuela . Waldock & Lewis (2014) recorded R. immarginata from Christmas Island and wrote [quote] “Although R. immarginata appears to be very widely distributed, the nominate subspecies has only been recorded from Kalimantan, Mentawai Islands , Sumatra ( Lewis, 2001), Uruguay , Kedah ( Malaysia) and Taiwan (Chao, 2008)”. Gravely (1910) recorded this species from Nepal . We add to the above list Papua New Guinea.

Remarks. Both specimens from Papua New Guinea have only tergite 21 marginate (diagnostic character of this species). They conform well to the descriptions of Attems (1930) and Waldock & Lewis (2014) except for the length of antennae, which reach posterior margin of tergite 3 (vs 5/6) when reflexed. However, Koch (1985: 212) already recorded that the antennae could be shorter in specimens from Borneo.

The studied exemplars demonstrate high degree of resemblance with the material from Nepal including keycharacters such as the number of glabrous basal antennal articles (three), number and distribution of leg spurs (legs 1–2/3 with 1 tibial, legs 1–16/17 with 2 tarsal and legs 20 with none), spinulation of prefemur of ultimate legs (3–4 spines in total) and shape + spinulation of coxopleural processes ( Fig. 19). The latter character accords well to Koch’s (1985) scheme (p. 207). Also, the shape of spiracles ( Fig. 20) is identical in all examined specimens.

The main difference between the Papuan and Nepalese exemplars is the length of antennae, which are longer in the latter and reach the anterior margin of tergite 6 when folded backward.

Spm 2 has the second maxillary pretarsus with only one, very thin and long (about 2/3 of pretarsus) accessory spine, situated just below the pretarsus, and closely attached to it; in spm 1 this accessory spine is not well visible. The same accessory spine is well observed in both additional exemplars ( Fig. 21); this character has not been recorded for R. immarginata before.