Aporodesmella tergalis, Golovatch, Sergei I., Geoffroy, Jean-Jacques & VandenSpiegel, Didier, 2014

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 : 39-43

Aporodesmella tergalis sp. n. Figs 7, 8

Fuhrmannodesmidae gen. sp. - Golovatch et al. 2013: 73.

Type material.

Holotype ♂ (MNHN JC 357), Vietnam, Kien Giang Province, Kien Luong, Hon Chong, Nui Bai Voi, cirque du Français, 104.618799E, 10.218541N, litter, Berlese extraction, 23.08.2003, leg. L. Deharveng & A. Bedos (Vn0308-112).

Paratypes: 1 ♂, 1 ♀ (SEM), same locality, together with holotype.

Name.

To emphasize the well-developed paraterga.

Diagnosis.

Differs from congeners by well developed paraterga, short tergal setae, the ♂ also by the presence of a peculiar, central hump above the antennae, the laterally bent, beak-shaped solenophore and the absence of a solenomere.

Description.

Length of adults ca 4.0 mm, width of midbody pro- and metazonae 0.4 and 0.5 mm (♂). Coloration in alcohol uniformly pallid, tegument nearly translucent.

Body with 19 segments (♂). Tegument dull, texture delicately alveolate, a cerategument on metazonae well-developed (Fig. 8A). Head with an evident, round, very finely pilose, central hump above antennae (♂) (Fig. 7D, G), more roughly setose over remaining surface except occiput; epicranial suture superficial; genae squarish (Fig. 7A, D, G); gnathochilarium narrow, setae on lamellae linguales particularly strong (Fig. 8B); isthmus between antennae about 1.5 times as broad as diameter of antennal socket (Fig. 7G). Antennae very short, reaching only behind collum when stretched dorsally, not geniculate, strongly clavate due to an abruptly and particularly enlarged antennomere 6, the latter with a usual, tight, distodorsal group of numerous bacilliform sensilla, antennomere 5 with a smaller, but also compact, distodorsal group of only a few shorter sensilla, 7th with a tiny mid-dorsal knob (Fig. 7J).

In width, head = collum <segment 3 = 4 <2 <5 = 16 (♂), thereafter body gradually tapering towards telson (Fig. 7 D–F). Paraterga well-developed, set low (at about upper 1/3-1/2 of body height), mostly clearly declined (Fig. 7 A–F, K), front edges moderately convex and forming a shoulder, caudal edges increasingly strongly concave caudad, lateral edges mostly straight, on each side with 3 setigerous, equidistant knobs; caudal corners mostly nearly sharp, lying within rear tergal margin until segment 10, thereafter increasingly well produced behind the margin (Fig. 7 A–F). Ozopores totally absent (Figs 7 A–F, I, 8A). Collum biconvex, nearly sharp laterally on both sides, with 3 transverse rows of short setae (Fig. 7D). Each following metatergum mostly with 3+3 short, slightly blunted, clavate, thickened and longitudinally ribbed setae arranged in 3 transverse regular rows and borne on minute knobs; sulci between the rows absent (Figs 7 A–F, M, 8A). Stricture between pro- and metazonae rather shallow and narrow, scaly like rear part of prozonae (Fig. 7E, L). Limbus very fine, very delicately and sparsely microdenticulate (Fig. 7L). Pleurosternal carinae absent (Fig. 7A, B, H). Epiproct short, conical, truncate, directed caudoventrally; pre-apical papillae large (Fig. 7C, F, I). Hypoproct subtrapeziform, caudal setigerous papillae well-developed and clearly separated (Fig. 7I).

Sterna without modifications, rather broad and sparsely setose. Legs short, ca 1.2-1.3 times as long as midbody height (♂); prefemora, femora, postfemora and tibiae clearly incrassate, tarsi longest, slender, sphaerotrichomes missing; claws simple, slightly curved (Fig. 7N); ♂ coxae 2 with very short, membranous, cylindrical gonapophyses (Fig. 7H).

Gonopod aperture transversely oblong-oval, slightly subcordate, taking up most of ventral part of metazonite 7 (Fig. 8C). Gonopods (Fig. 8 C–F) rather complex, with globose, microgranulate, medially fused coxae carrying a few setae on ventral face and a normal cannula mesally. Telopodites mostly exposed, in situ held parallel to each other, nearly contiguous medially, each unipartite, with a rather large, densely setose prefemoral part clearly set off from acropodite by an oblique ventral sulcus and a curved dorsal spine (k); acropodite divided into 2 subequally long parts, each also about equal in length to prefemoral portion; basal half of acropodite remaining coaxial with prefemoral portion, slightly broadened distad and carrying an evident orifice (o) of a fully mesally running seminal groove on a vestigial mesal solenomere (= tubercle), whereas distal half of acropodite, or solenophore (sph), acuminate, directed abruptly laterad, subflagelliform (b), carrying a parabasal apical tooth (t) and a conspicuous, curved, denticulate lamina (a) beginning from near o and turning around b on lateral side.

Remarks.

This species served elsewhere ( Golovatch et al. 2013) to illustrate a somewhat transitional condition in its gonopod structure, especially an elongate and laterad directed apical part, between the Trichopolydesmidae (= " Fuhrmannodesmidae ") and Opisotretidae within the same superfamily Trichopolydesmoidea . A far more spectacular example of the same trend is seen in Gonatodesmus gen. n. (see below).