Nearctomeris, Wesener, Thomas, 2012

Wesener, Thomas, 2012, Nearctomeris, a new genus of Pill Millipedes from North America, with a comparison of genetic distances of American Pill Millipede Genera (Glomerida, Glomeridae), Zootaxa 3258, pp. 58-68 : 62

Nearctomeris new genus

Etymology. Nearctomeris , feminine, after the Nearctic ecozone where this genus is distributed, and -meris, a common suffix for members of the order Glomerida .

Diagnosis. Nearctomeris can only be confused with members of the genus Onomeris , with which it often occurs in sympatry. Being of similar size and color, a determination is only possible after observing an unrolled specimen under magnification. See the determination key for a list of the numerous morphological characters separating Onomeris and Nearctomeris .

Type species: Nearctomeris inexpectata n. sp.

Description. Since Nearctomeris is currently monotypic, see the description of N. inexpectata n. sp. below.

Position of Nearctomeris within the Glomerida . The telopods of Nearctomeris , the only structure widely known through all pill millipede genera, closely resemble those of the Asian genera Hyleoglomeris Verhoeff, 1910 and Hyperglomeris Silvestri, 1917 . In the current classification system by Mauriès (2005), Nearctomeris would be placed in the family Glomeridae (telopod with trichostele), subfamily Glomerinae (podomeres of telopod not elongated). The tribal position is more difficult to determine, either Glomerini or Doderiini (both with trichosteles on the prefemur and femur). Nearctomeris differs from other members of the tribe Glomerini ( Glomeris et al.) by the presence of a reduced telopodite of the male leg 17, similar to some (all?) Hyleoglomeris , Hyperglomeris , and Onomeris species.