Cocacolaria hauseri Hoffman, 1987

Golovatch, Sergei I., Geoffroy, Jean-Jacques & VandenSpiegel, Didier, 2014, Review of the millipede family Trichopolydesmidae in the Oriental realm (Diplopoda, Polydesmida), with descriptions of new genera and species, ZooKeys 414, pp. 19-65 : 32-35

Cocacolaria hauseri Hoffman, 1987 Figs 1, 2

Cocacolaria hauseri Hoffman, 1987: 38.

Material examined.

1 ♂, 7 ♀, 1 fragment (MNHN JC 354), Vanuatu, Espirito Santo Island, Natawa forest, small doline Arifos, 167.183167E, 15.2962S, sieved litter & Berlese extraction, 24.09.2006, leg. L. Deharveng & A. Bedos (SK06-24-24); 1 ♂ (SEM), same locality, date and collectors (SK06-24-22); 3 ♀ (MNHN JC 354), Espirito Santo Island, Boutmas, forest near entrance to Cave Fapon, 166.9648833E, 15.33101667S, 380 m a.s.l., litter, Berlese extraction, 08.09.2006, leg. L. Deharveng & C. Rahmadi (SK06-08-24).

Redescription.

Length of adults of both sexes 4-6 mm (♂, ♀), width of midbody pro- and metazonae ca 0.3 and 0.4 mm, respectively. Coloration in alcohol from uniformly pallid to light yellowish.

Body with 19 (♂) or 20 (♀) segments. Tegument mainly dull, at most slightly shining, texture very delicately alveolate. Head densely pilose throughout; epicranial suture superficial and thin (Fig. 1A); isthmus between antennae about 1.5 times as broad as diameter of antennal socket. Antennae short, reaching only behind (♂) or midway of collum (♀) when stretched dorsally, not geniculate, very clearly clavate, especially so due to largest antennomere 6, the latter with a small, but evident distodorsal group of bacilliform sensilla.

Body moniliform, especially so in ♂ (Fig. 1 D–F). In width, collum << head <segment 2 <3 = 4 <5(6) = 15 (♂, ♀), thereafter body gradually tapering towards telson. Paraterga very poorly developed, mainly represented by setigerous tubercles (Fig. 1 A–F, H–K), starting from collum, set rather low (at about upper 1/3-1/2 of segment’s height), leaving a highly convex dorsum (Fig. 1 A–C & K). Caudal corner of postcollum paraterga increasingly tuberculiform, mainly clearly rounded, not extending behind rear tergal margin. Pore formula normal; ozopores evident, round, lying dorsolaterally on top of caudolateral tubercle of paraterga very close to lateral margin, more remote from caudal margin (Fig. 1M). Collum subovoid, each following metatergum with 3 transverse rows of mostly long, pointed, very faintly ribbed, helicoid setae largely borne on 6+6 unusually high tubercles, these being especially prominent in last row (Fig. 1 A–F). Stricture between pro- and metazonae deep, rather narrow and smooth. Limbus thin and entire, not microdenticulate. Pleurosternal carinae absent (Fig. 1A). Epiproct short, conical, directed caudoventrally; pre-apical papillae evident (Fig. 1C, F, J). Hypoproct nearly semi-circular (Fig. 1J), setiferous papillae at caudal corners very clear, stalk-shaped and well separated.

Sterna without modifications, broad, flat, poorly setose (Fig. 1 H–J). Stigma openings flat, beset with dense and long filaments (Fig. 1N). Legs in ♀ and juveniles clearly shorter and slenderer, ca 1.0-1.1 times as long as body height, in ♂ somewhat incrassate and ca 1.3-1.4 times as long as body height (Figs 1B, 2A); tarsi longest; sphaerotrichomes missing (Fig. 2A). Each ♂ coxa 2 with a short, cylindrical, distoventral gonapophysis.

Gonopod aperture transversely oblong-oval, taking up most of ventral part of metazonite 7, its edges nowhere elevated (Figs 1H, 2B). Gonopods (Fig. 2 B–E) with rather moderately large, globose, bare, ventrolaterally papillate, medially fused coxae carrying normal cannulae mesally. Telopodite strongly elongate and curved, subunciform, bipartite, directed mesad and crossing in situ, each at about midway with a short, mesal, calyciform process (p) (= solenomere) terminating a fully mesal seminal groove, with neither an accessory seminal chamber nor a hairy pulvillus. Main branch (b) (= solenophore) bifid and slightly expanded subterminally.

Remarks.

This species, originally described from a single ♂ taken in a cave in Lelet Plateau, New Ireland, Papua New Guinea ( Hoffman 1987), appears to be common and widespread in Vanuatu. However, among the literally hundreds of specimens taken on Espiritu Santo and Malo islands by the famous SANTO 2006 expedition, held by the MNHN ( Bouchet et al. 2009, 2011, 2012), there were only two adult males. This might be evidence of seasonality or partial parthenogenesis, or both.

The original description is quite detailed and nicely illustrated ( Hoffman 1987) and we are certain about the identity of our Vanuatu samples. We provide SEM images (Figs 1 and 2) to document the identity and to complement Hoffman’s (1987) description.