Zoosphaerium mangabe Wesener, 2020

Wesener, Thomas & Anilkumar, Pooja Avinipully, 2020, The millipedes collected by the Museum " La Specola " on Madagascar 1989 / 1991, with the description of three new species of giant pill-millipedes (Diplopoda, Sphaerotheriida, Arthrosphaeridae), ZooKeys 930, pp. 3-35 : 3

Zoosphaerium mangabe Wesener sp. nov. Figures 2 , 3A-H , 5A

Material examined.

1 ♂ holotype (MZUF), Nosy Mangabe (Maroantsetra), 15°29'43.4''S, 49°46'07.6''E, Mag 1313, R. Nicheri, 24 Apr 1990.

Other material examined.

1 ♂ (ZMUCXXXX), Madagascar, Province Antsiranana, Marojejy Res., 8.4 km NNW Manantenina, 14°26'S, 49°45'E, 700 m, 10-16 Nov 1991, leg. J. Coddington, N. Scharff, S. Larcher, C. Griswold, R. Andriamasimanana; 1 ♂ (ZFMK MYR8915), same data as previous; 1 ♀ (FMNH-INS 2858681B), VS-2642, Madagascar, Antsiranana, SAVA, Parc National de Marojejy, 6.5 km NW Manantenina village, 14°27'21.2''S, 49°46'29.8''E, 780 m, disturbed lowland humid forest, pitfalls, coll. 31 May 2016, Voahangy Soarimalala, GenBank #KY399026.

Etymology.

The word mangabe is a noun in apposition, after the type locality of the species, the island of Nosy Mangabe at the NE coast of Madagascar.

Diagnosis.

Zoosphaerium mangabe sp. nov. shares the large body size, surface structure (like the peel of an orange), presence of only one stridulation rib on the male harp, and> 10 apical cones on the antenna only with Z. coquerelianum (de Saussure & Zehntner, 1897) and Z. tainkintana Wesener, 2009. Zoosphaerium mangabe sp. nov. differs from Z. coquerelianum in the long second locking carina on the anal shield (> times longer than the first), the hairy anal shield, and the presence of sclerotized teeth on the anterior telopods. The former differs from Z. tainkintana in the much shorter marginal bristles of the endotergum (reaching only 1/3 of the distance towards margin), the female operculum (two widely separated tips vs. fused tips), and in structures of the anterior telopod (e.g., three or four large teeth in Z. mangabe sp. nov. but seven in Z. tainkintana ).

Description

(all measurements in mm). Body length: Male holotype: length 49.3, width 27.4 (2nd), 27.9 (8th = widest), height 13.7 (2nd), 15.5 (8th = highest). Female from Marojejy (broken): length ca. 50, width 27.9 (2nd = widest), height 14.6 (2nd), 18.1 (8th = highest).

Coloration: Color in some parts faded to a lighter brown than other parts after almost 30 years in ethanol. Younger and better-preserved female from Marojejy (FMNH-INS 2858681B) shows dark grey tergites with a thin dark brown posterior margin. Clypeus, base of legs and tip of antennae lighter brown, other parts of appendages dark green. Head except clypeus, collum, thoracic shield, body tergites, and anal shield dark olive green.

Head: Eyes consisting of 65/68 ommatidia. Antennae with 36/48 apical cones, part of left tip apparently regenerated.

Gnathochilarium: Sensory cones of palpi in single field. Inner parts of gnathochilarium not dissected.

Mandible not dissected.

Stigmatic plate: First stigmatic plate slender, apically narrow but well-rounded.

Pleurite: First pleurite laterally sharp-edged but not projecting.

Collum: Anterior and posterior margins with a sparse row of short setae. Inner part with a few isolated short setae.

Thoracic shield: Grooves deep, with few long setae. Remaining surface of thoracic shield similar to following tergites.

Tergites: Surface orange-like, each pit carrying a tiny seta. Tergite tips strongly projecting posteriorly.

Endotergum: Inner area with conical spines, broad at base with numerous setae and numerous small sharp spines in between. Single row of interchanging elliptical and smaller circular cuticular impressions. Smooth marginal ridge. Two rows of very short marginal bristle, protruding towards 1/4-1/2 margin (Fig. 5A ).

Anal shield: Well-rounded, well-visible dorsally. Completely and regularly covered by small setae, underside carrying two locking carinae, second more than four times as long as first.

Legs: Leg one with three or five, leg two with six, leg three with seven ventral spines. First two leg pairs without an apical spine. Legs 4-21 with 8-10 ventral spines and one apical spine (Fig. 3A ). In leg nine femur 1.9, tarsus 4.1 times longer than wide.

Female sexual characters: Vulva large, covering 3/4 of coxa, not extending to prefemur but protruding to apical margin of coxa. Operculum rounded, medially deeply invaginated, apical margin extended into two well-rounded lobes. Inner mesal plate long and slender and extending to apex of coxa and operculum. Lateral margin covered by hairs. External mesal plate broader and only extending to base of operculum, lateral margins also covered by hair (Fig. 3G ).

Subanal plate: Large and wide, with shallow invagination at apical margin. Washboard with two short but well-developed stridulation ribs on each side. Margins and median part densely covered with hair (Fig. 3H ).

Male sexual characters: Gonopore slightly oval, rounded apically, apical 1/4 covered by semicircular membranous plate, basal 3/4 by sclerotized plate, with few setae.

Anterior telopod: Harp carrying one stridulation rib positioned medially with end pointing laterad. Podomere one wide with few setae in anterior aspect (Fig. 3B ). Podomere two, process not visible in anterior view, reaching half of length of podomere three (Fig. 3C, D ), with sclerotized nubs along mesal margin. Podomere three tapering, as long as podomere two, with a rounded apex carrying one dark sclerotized spot near tip (Fig. 3C, D ). Field of sclerotized spots run along apical-basal margin with three spines (Fig. 3C, D ). Three or four crenulated teeth at lateral margin (Fig. 3C, D ).

Posterior telopod: Movable finger 2.4 times longer than wide with tip slightly curving towards the immovable finger. Apical tip with ten sclerotized crenulated teeth, three spines, and a shallow mesal cavity with one triangular membranous lobe (Fig. 3E, F ). Immovable finger basally with one spine (Fig. 3E ); slender, 3.4 times longer than wide, reaching as far as movable finger, tip curved towards movable finger with a row of small sclerotized spots along apical part of mesal margin. Podomere one glabrous, podomere two in both aspects densely covered with setae, apical part of immovable finger glabrous. Movable finger with few setae in latero-basal part in both aspects (Fig. 3E, F ).

Intraspecific variation.

Surprisingly, the specimens from Marojejy are in almost all aspects identical to the one studied from Nosy Mangabe. The genetic barcode comes from the female, and was previously published as " Zoosphaerium sp. Grey" ( Sagorny and Wesener 2017).

Figures

Figure 2. Distribution map of the three new Zoosphaerium species and the morphologically related species. Photograph shows the holotype of Zoosphaerium mangabe sp. nov., male.

Figure 3. Zoosphaerium mangabe sp. nov., male holotype, female from Marojejy. A 9 th left leg B - D Left anterior telopod, E, F posterior telopod. B anterior view C lateral view D posterior view E anterior view F posterior view G female vulva H female washboard. Abbreviations: cx = coxa; fe = femur; O = operculum; pf = prefemur; po = postfemur; sr = stridulation rib; syn = syncoxite; ta = tarsus; ti = tibia; roman numerals refer to telopoditomere number. Scale bars: 1 mm.

Figure 5. SEM, Endotergum of mid body tergites, ventral view. A Zoosphaerium mangabe sp. nov., male from Marojejy B Zoosphaerium bartolozzii sp. nov., male holotype C Zoosphaerium taitii sp. nov., male holotype. Abbreviations: IA = inner area; ci = cuticular impressions; mr = marginal ridge; mb = marginal bristles.