Solaenodolichopus walesius Verhoeff, 1928

Mesibov, Robert, 2014, The millipede genus Solaenodolichopus Verhoeff, 1924 (Diplopoda, Polydesmida, Paradoxosomatidae). 1. New genus diagnosis and redescriptions of named species, European Journal of Taxonomy 83, pp. 1-36 : 29-33

Solaenodolichopus walesius Verhoeff, 1928

Figs 1A–B , 2F , 3C , 11A–C , 11E–I

Solänodolichopus walesius Verhoeff, 1928: 94 (genus misspelled Solanodolichopus ), 95 (first description, genus misspelled Solandolichopus), 114 (as Solänodolichopus walesius in list of species described in paper); pl. 10, figs 26–27.

Parwalesoma castaneum Verhoeff, 1937: 139 (first description); figs 6–7 (p. 138).

Parwalesoma castaneum – Attems 1940: 549 (Verhoeff’s description reworded). — Jeekel 1968: 19, 29. — Jeekel 1971: 231 (noted as type of Parwalesoma ). — Jeekel 1981: 49. — Jeekel 2000: 41 (synonymised with Parwalesoma walesium ). — Nguyen & Sierwald 2013: 1157 (as synonym of Parwalesoma walesium ).

Aulacoporus walesius – Attems 1937: 261 (new combination), 264 ( Verhoeff’s 1928 description reworded); fig. 329 (p. 264; same as fig. 26 in Verhoeff 1928). — Jeekel 1968: 18, 29; Jeekel 1981: 49. Parwalesoma walesium – Jeekel 2000: 41 (new combination). — Nguyen & Sierwald 2013: 1157.

Material examined

S. walesius lectotype (here designated)

Male in alcohol with original Verhoeff label, broken between rings 6 and 7 and rings 7 and 8, North Dorrigo, NSW [30°16’S 152°41’E ± 5 km], 4 Jan. 1923,A. Musgrave, AM KS.76508 (formerly K47704 ).

S. walesius paralectotypes

1 male in alcohol with original Verhoeff label, broken between rings 6 and 7, ZMB 7962; 1 female in alcohol without original Verhoeff label, broken between rings 5 and 6, AM KS.76509 (also formerly K47704 ); collection details for both as for S. walesius lectotype.

P. castaneum lectotype (here designated)

Male in alcohol with original Verhoeff label, broken between rings 8 and 9, missing left antenna, ZMB 12652; Comboyne district, NSW [31°35’ S, 152°28’ E, ± 10 km], date unknown, E.C. Chisholm (see general notes, below).

P. castaneum paralectotypes

Slide mount with original Verhoeff label containing male legpairs 1 and 9 and both gonopods, ZSM A20033565; male rings 4–6 and an isolated diplosegment, and 1 female broken between rings 8 and 9, and 10 and 11, in alcohol with new labels (male and female in separate vials), ZSM 20052246; 1 female in alcohol with original Verhoeff label, broken between rings 6 and 7 and rings 12 and 13, AM KS76700; collection details for all three as for P. castaneum lectotype. I assume that the male rings in ZSM A 20052246 and the slide-mounted parts in ZSM A20033565 are from the same individual, i.e., that together they represent a single male paralectotype specimen (see taxonomic notes, below).

Other material

NEW SOUTH WALES: 1 ♂, Comboyne [31°35’ S, 152°28’ E, ± 10 km], Aug. 1926, E.C. Chisholm, AM KS.94102 (see taxonomic notes, below); 2 ♂♂, Comboyne Cave KSS-C4, 31°34’13” S, 152°23’38” E [± 100 m], 21 Mar. 1971, C. Carter, AM KS.96065; 2 ♂♂, 2 ♀♀, Kerewong State Forest near Lorne, site 108, 31°36’ S, 152°34’ E [± 2 km], pitfall, 7 Nov.–10 Dec. 1978, D. Milledge, AM KS.16152; 1 ♂, same details, KS.18483; 1 ♂, same details but site 81, 31°35’ S, 152°38’ E [± 2 km], pitfall, 26 Sep.–12 Dec. 1978, AM KS.105104 (ex KS.96075); 1 ♂, 2 ♀♀, Boundary Creek Road, Boundary Creek State Forest, 29°56’ S, 152°33’ E [± 500 m], pitfall, 4 Feb.–9 Apr. 1993, M. Gray and G. Cassis, AM KS.93755.

Description

(Based, unless otherwise indicated, on S. walesius lectotype and paralectotypes.) As for the genus. Maximum male/female midbody width ca. 4.5/4.5 mm. Colour in alcohol: “Body ringed, the metazonites for the most part dark brown and the prozonites wine red. / The wine-red colour of the prozonites extends on to the anterior bands of the metazonites, which are otherwise dark brown. The lower sides and abdomen are also wine-red, the legs yellowish” ( Verhoeff 1928: 94 /95); colouring of types now faded and patchy, but rings light brown, darker dorsally, lightening to yellow at the waist, darkening towards rear of metatergite; colouring of more recent specimens as noted by Verhoeff.

Male with distinct transverse furrow on metazonites, stopping a little above level of ozopore. No longitudinal furrows laterally on diplosegments. Sternal lamella ( Fig. 2F ) broadly paraboloid in outline. Scopulae on legs 1 to 29, i.e., not present on last podous ring. Leg bases on ring 6 separated a little more than on ring 5; leg bases with normal separation on ring 8. Anterior margin of aperture more or less straight with small, rounded-triangular, medial extension.

Gonocoxa (of male in AM KS.93755) about 1/2 telopodite length, slightly flattened anteroposteriorly, with sparse, long setae anterodistally. Cannula short, narrow, uniformly tapering towards prefemur. Gonopod telopodite ( Fig. 11A–C, E–I ) just reaching leg 6 bases when retracted. Prefemur small, rounded, densely setose posteromedially, demarcated from femorite laterally by small, narrow notch. Remainder of telopodite more or less straight, slender, clearly divided into femorite and solenomere at about 2/3 telopodite length. Femorite narrowing very slightly between ends, slightly flattened anteroposteriorly. Medial femorite process a small, triangular tab; lateral femorite process spine-like, between 1/4 and 1/3 solenomere length, arising more distally than medial process, curving slightly anteriorly towards solenomere. Solenomere arising anterior to femorite processes, ca. 1/2-2/3 femorite width at base, curving laterally then medially and flattening to form trough-like hollow, concave medially; basal half of anterior margin of hollow extending distomedially and a little anteriorly as large, flat, triangular tab reaching ca. 1/2 solenomere length, curving posteriorly, distal margin of tab with a few small teeth; hollow at apex of solenomere facing posteromedially, the anterior margin produced as small subapical tab with rounded notch medially on distal margin, the solenomere apex distal to the notch at right angles to the subapical tab. Prostatic groove running on anterior surface of telopodite and lateral to large, basal solenomere tab, following subapical tab margin and terminating at distal corner of subapical tab.

Female without process on leg 2 coxa.

Distribution

Known from eucalypt forest (and rainforest?) in northeast NSW from the ranges northwest of Coffs Harbour to the Comboyne district, a north-south extent of ca. 180 km (map Fig. 12 ). Overlaps in range with S. sulcatus .

Taxonomic notes

The lectotype and paralectotype S. walesius males from North Dorrigo are almost identical in size and morphological details to the lectotype P. castaneum male from the Comboyne district, 150 km to the south; they differ slightly in the slenderness of the femorite ( Fig. 11A–B ). It is a little puzzling that Verhoeff did not recognise them as the same species. His drawings of the S. walesius telopodite tip (figs 26 and 27 in Verhoeff 1928; Fig. 11J ) appear to have been done from a posterior and slightly oblique view of the left gonopod of the lectotype, while the drawings of the P. castaneum telopodite tip (figs 6 and 7 in Verhoeff 1937; Fig. 11H ) are from a medial view of the left gonopod telopodite on the lectotype slide mount. Verhoeff may have returned one of his S. walesius males to AM before he received the P. castaneum specimens, but he may still have held the male that found its way to ZMB. If not, it is possible that Verhoeff had no gonopod drawings of S. walesius to compare other than his published ones. Ironically, it was a comparison of those drawings that led Jeekel (2000) to propose that P. castaneum was a junior synonym of S. walesius .

In both S. walesius ( Fig. 11C ) and S. pruvoti ( Fig. 11D ) the solenomere tip ends in an L-shaped channel. One side of the ‘L’ is the thin, anteroposteriorly flattened tab at whose medial margin the prostatic groove opens. The other, thicker side of the ‘L’ is distal to this tab and lies in a plane at right angles to it. In S. pruvoti , a narrow notch (arrow in Fig. 11D ) separates the two sides of the ‘L’, the distal side thus becoming a separate process, i.e., the ‘pre-apical latero-distal process’ of Jeekel (2000). In S. walesius , the two sides of the ‘L’ are joined at the tip by a shallow indentation (arrow in Fig. 11C ). This difference does not seem to me to be important enough to separate two genera, which is why I have synonymised Parwalesoma with Solaenodolichopus (see above). In future papers I will document variations at the tip of the solenomere in other Solaenodolichopus species.

Verhoeff (1928, 1937) did not state how many specimens he examined, but gave male and female lengths for both S. walesius and P. castaneum . My lectotypifications imply that Verhoeff looked at two males and one female of S. walesius and two males (one dissected, most parts now missing) and two females of P. castaneum . However, the AM whole female in alcohol (KS.76509) and the ZSM male parts and whole female in alcohol (20052246) are missing any original Verhoeff labels. I include these among the types because I assume that the ZSM male parts are the remains of the male dissected for the ZSM slide mount, which does have a Verhoeff label, and because the collection details label for AM KS.76509 appears to be original. I have not made the male S. walesius in AM KS.94102 a paralectotype because it has only a recent, printed label; it may have been deposited directly in AM by collector E.C. Chisholm (see below). The ZSM slide of P. castaneum was labelled ‘lectotype’ by P.M. Johns in 1967, but this lectotypification was not published.

General notes

According to contemporary newspaper items, collector Dr E.C. Chisholm was a naturalist and Government Medical Officer in the Comboyne district from 1923 to 1935 (The Port Macquarie News and Hastings River Advocate, 4 Jun. 1927, p. 5, http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/ 112527391; The Sydney Morning Herald, 17 Jan. 1933, p. 6, http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/16945944; The Maitland Daily Mercury, 5 Jul. 1935, p. 3, http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/127096313; all accessed 24 Dec. 2013).

Chisholm presumably collected his Comboyne millipedes and sent them directly to Verhoeff ( Verhoeff 1937: 133) during that 12-year period. As he had done with descriptions of NSW species in his 1928 paper, Verhoeff used the State museum journal, Records of the Australian Museum, as an outlet for his descriptions of P. castaneum and four other Comboyne millipede species. Verhoeff (1937) published in German, however, perhaps to avoid any misunderstandings arising from inadequate translation.

See also the general notes for S. rubriventris (above).

Figures

Fig. 1. — A–B. Solaenodolichopus walesius Verhoeff, 1928. A. Lectotype ♂, AM KS.76508, right anterior view. B. ♂ ex AM KS.16152, midbody spiracles, ventral view, anterior to left. — C, E. S. vittatus (Verhoeff, 1924). C. Paralectotype ♀, NHRS KAS1000000007, midbody spiracles, ventral view, anterior to left (image right-left reversed for ease of comparison with 1B). E. ♂ ex QM S74828, anterior leg tip with scopula, tarsus at left. — D. S. teres (Verhoeff, 1924), lectotype ♂ slide mount, NHRS KAS1000000005, legpair 1. — F. S. pruvoti (Brolemann, 1931), ♂ ex QM S74856, epiproct, posterior and slightly ventral view. Scale bars: A = 2.5 mm, B–C = 0.5 mm, D = 1 mm, E = 0.25 mm, F = 0.1 mm.

Fig. 2. Posterior views of sternal lamella in ♂♂. — A. Solaenodolichopus pruvoti (Brolemann, 1931), QM S74856. — B. S. rubriventris Verhoeff, 1928, QM S74690. — C. S. sulcatus (Verhoeff, 1928), lectotype, AM KS.76503. — D. S. teres (Verhoeff, 1924), lectotype in alcohol, ZSM A20052188. — E. S. vittatus (Verhoeff, 1924), QM S74829. — F. S. walesius Verhoeff, 1928, lectotype, AM KS.76508. Scale bars: 0.5 mm.

Fig. 3. — A–B. Solaenodolichopus rubriventris Verhoeff, 1928, ♂, QM S74690. A. Right ventrolateral view of ring 7 showing swelling (arrow) just anterolateral to aperture. B. Ventral view of aperture showing gently convex extensions (arrows) on either side of medial extension on anterior margin of aperture. — C. S. walesius Verhoeff, 1928, ♀, AM KS.16152, posteroventral view of epigyne showing raised end (arrow). — D. S. teres (Verhoeff, 1924), paralectotype ♀, NHRS KAS1000000007, left ventrolateral view of anterior rings showing distolateral process on leg 2 coxa (arrow) just medial to raised end of epigyne. Scale bars: 1 mm.

Fig. 11. — A–C, E–J. Solaenodolichopus walesius Verhoeff, 1928. A–B. Posterior views of gonopods in situ of lectotype, AM KS.76508 (A) and Parwalesoma castaneum Verhoeff, 1937 (= S. walesius) lectotype, ZMB 12652 (B). C. Posterior view of left gonopod solenomere tip, AM KS.16152. E–G, I. Lateral (E), anterior (F), medial (G) and posteromedial (I) views of left gonopod solenomere, AM KS.93755. H. Medial view of left gonopod solenomere of P. castaneum (= S. walesius), from fig. 6 in Verhoeff (1937). J. Posterior and slightly oblique view of left gonopod solenomere of S. walesius, from fig. 26 in Verhoeff (1928). — D. S. pruvoti (Brolemann, 1931), posterior view of left gonopod solenomere tip, QM S74856 (composite image at two focus levels). Dotted line in F marks course of prostatic groove. Scale bars: 1 mm.

Fig. 12. Localities for named Solaenodolichopus species as of February 2014. — A. Australia showing location of map B (rectangle). — B. S. teres (Verhoeff, 1924) (star), S. sulcatus (Verhoeff, 1928) (crosses) and S. walesius Verhoeff, 1928 (open triangles), other species (filled squares); rectangle shows location of map C. — C. S. pruvoti (Brolemann, 1931) (open squares), S. rubriventris Verhoeff, 1928 (crosses) and S. vittatus (Verhoeff, 1924) (open triangles). Maps A–C are geographic projections; approximate north-south map extents are 900 km for B and 220 km for C.