Eutrichodesmus lipsae Golovatch, Geoffroy, Mauries & VandenSpiegel

Golovatch, Sergei I., Geoffroy, Jean-Jacques, Mauries, Jean-Paul & VandenSpiegel, Didier, 2015, Review of the millipede genus Eutrichodesmus Silvestri, 1910, in China, with descriptions of new cavernicolous species (Diplopoda, Polydesmida, Haplodesmidae), ZooKeys 505, pp. 1-34 : 2-6

Taxon classification Animalia Polydesmida Haplodesmidae

Eutrichodesmus lipsae Golovatch, Geoffroy, Mauries & VandenSpiegel sp. n. Figs 3, 4

Type material.

Holotype ♂ (MNHN JC 368), China, Guangxi Prov., Guilin County, Grotte des Squelettes, 22.VII.1992, leg. J. Lips (No. B1-2).

Paratypes: 1 ♂ (SEM), 1 juv. (MNHN JC 368), same data, together with holotype.

Name.

In honour of Josiane Lips, the collector.

Diagnosis.

Differs from congeners by clearly elevated mid-dorsal regions of most metaterga, coupled with a slender, suberect gonopod telopodite which shows a rather narrowly gapped apical pincer (see also Key below).

Description.

Length of adults ca 7.0 mm, width 1.0 and 1.95 mm on midbody pro- and metazonae, respectively (♂). Coloration entirely pallid.

All characters as in Eutrichodesmus triangularis sp. n., except as follows.

Body with 20 segments (♂) (Fig. 3A), conglobation pattern typical of “doratodesmoids”, volvation apparently being complete because of strongly declivous and relatively narrow paraterga. Antennae short and clavate (Fig. 3I). Collum not covering the head from above, fore margin clearly lobulate, with 4-5 transverse rows of very flat tuberculations/bosses. Metaterga behind collum with three transverse, rather irregular, mixostictic rows of similarly flat, rounded, often obliterate, obviously setigerous bosses extending onto paraterga, usually about 9-10+9-10 per row (Fig. 3 A–G); starting with segment 3, middle and caudal rows clearly enlarged and elevated mid-dorsad, increasingly clearly so towards segment 15 or 16 as well (Fig. 3 A–G); caudomarginal lobulations evident across dorsum; limbus microcrenulate. Paraterga with evident shoulders anteriorly, strongly declivous, directed ventrolaterad at about 45° to only slightly less strongly declined sides above paraterga, broad, tips lying clearly below level of venter, usually vaguely bilobate laterally, without anterolaterals, but with well-developed rounded caudolaterals at and above base (Fig. 3 A–D, L). Paraterga 2 strongly enlarged, directed ventrad (Fig. 3A, B, I), lateral margin broadly rounded, with numerous, very small lobulations, caudal margin with a row of lobules extending across dorsum, both schism and hyposchism small. Tergal setae very short, 2-segmented, apical part phylloid (Fig. 3M). Pore formula normal, ozopores indistinct, located dorsally at about anterior 1/3 of paratergite and well removed from lateral margin (Fig. 3L). Hypoproct subtrapeziform (Fig. 3K).

Sterna usually with a rather deep, narrow depression between coxae (Fig. 3I, J). Legs long and slender, about 1.1-1.2 times as long as body height.

Gonopods (Figs 3N-Q, 4) simple. Coxae subquadrate, large, micropapillate, but not setose, with only a small round lobe caudolaterally. Telopodite considerably longer than coxite, slender, suberect, setose over its basal 2/3 until base of a prominent, finger-shaped, poorly papillate, distofemoral process (dp), the latter situated in distal 1/4 of telopodite, more distally with a rather narrow, twisted, subacuminate, slightly longer acropodite forming a rather narrowly gapped pincer together with dp and showing a short, distoventral, subapical spine (s) and a small, distodorsal, subapical tooth (t); seminal groove terminating at base of s, devoid of a hairpad.

Remark.

More information on the location of the cave can be found at http://www.groupe-speleo-vulcain.com/explorations/expeditions-a-letranger/