The millipede genus Caucasodesmus Golovatch, 1985, with the description of a new species from the Crimea, Ukraine (Polydesmida, Diplopoda, Trichopolydesmidae)

Abstract

The hitherto monotypic genus Caucasodesmus is new to the Ukrainian list due to the discovery of Caucasodesmus tauricus sp. n. in a cave in the Crimea. The new species is easily distinguished from Caucasodesmus inexpectatus Golovatch, 1985, the type, and only other, known species of this genus, in the abundantly setose collum and following metaterga, and more elaborate gonopods. The status of Caucasodesmus, which shows in the superfamily Trichopolydesmoidea where it definitely belongs such evident generic-level apomorphies as the absence of bacilliform sensilla on antennomeres 5 and 7, of a cannula on the gonocoxite, and of a seminal groove on a biramous gononod telopodite (apparently, both latter characters are functionally correlated to each other), is refined by formally reassigning it to the family Trichopolydesmidae.

Trichopolydesmidae from Cameroon, 1: The genus Hemisphaeroparia Schubart, 1955. With a genus-level reclassification of Afrotropical genera of the family (Diplopoda, Polydesmida)

“…Somatic characters such as the number of body segments (19 in the male or in both sexes, or 20 in both sexes), the pore formula (always normal, but can be a little abbreviated on the last 1–2 segments before the telson: 5, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, 15–17(18,19)), the degree of development of paraterga (usually moderate, often small, but never really well-developed and strongly flattened dorsally), the position of the ozopores (usually open flush dorsally near the caudal corner of pore-bearing paraterga), the shape of tergal setae (short and clavate to very long and bacilliform), the presence of modifications on male legs 2 (enlarged in Bactrodesmus ) and on the male head (ranging sporadically from nothing to a strong, central bulge or a mushroom-like or bulbous tubercle), they all are considered here as species-specific. This situation agrees with general wisdom derived from other tropical faunas (Golovatch 1994, Golovatch et al 2014). …”

“…Golovatch (1992, 1994) provided an evolutionary scenario for the genera of Trichopolydesmidae (= Fuhrmannodesmidae) known from South America, accepting as the basalmost those genera showing rather small, narrowly fused 1 , subglobose gonopodal coxae that form no significant gonocoel in which to hinge the largely exposed, usually rather complex and elongate telopodites. Amongst the Afrotropical trichopolydesmids such are the genera Elgonicola , Heterosphaeroparia , Megaloparia , and Sphaeroparia (Figs 1D, 2A, 1B, and 1A, respectively).…”

“…Such situations seem to imply telopodite torsion. The length of a solenomere is usually barely more than species-specific, but the course of the seminal groove is definitely a generic-level character, as can be seen in Neotropical or Southeast Asian Trichopolydesmidae (Golovatch 1992, 1994, Golovatch et al 2014, Golovatch and VandenSpiegel 2016). …”

“…The millipede family Trichopolydesmidae, not long ago largely referred to as Fuhrmannodesmidae, a group that mainly included tropical taxa (e.g., Hoffman 1980, Golovatch 1994, Mauriès and Heymer 1996) as opposed to the originally Mediterranean Trichopolydesmidae, presently contains ca. 140 species from ca.…”

Review of the millipede family Trichopolydesmidae in the Oriental realm (Diplopoda, Polydesmida), with descriptions of new genera and species

“…Moreover, a gonopod-based diagnosis of Trichopolydesmidae is still not entirely satisfactory (Simonsen 1990, Golovatch 2011, 2013). This family appears to unite the micropolydesmoids in which the gonopod coxae are subglobose, from rather small to very large, while the prefemoral part is often orientated transversely to the body axis, usually extending fully mesally across the coxae.…”