Amastigogonus Brölemann, 1913

Mauriès, Jean-Paul, Golovatch, Sergei I. & Hoffman, Richard L., 2001, On type material and the identity of several Iulus species described by Paul Gervais, in the collection of the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle in Paris (Diplopoda, Spirostreptida, Spirobolida), Zoosystema 23 (3), pp. 579-589 : 585

Genus Amastigogonus Brölemann, 1913

Amastigogonus verreauxii ( Gervais, 1847) n. comb. ( Fig. 3 )

Iulus Verreauxii Gervais, 1847: 175 .

TYPE MATERIAL. — N° GA 031, 1 holotype.

TYPE LOCALITY. — The sample is stated to derive from the slopes of Mont Wellington, Tasmania (which is near Hobart), collected by Jules Verreaux.

REMARKS

Re-examination of the male holotype (holotype status presumed from the original description that gives variation neither in leg counts nor size has revealed that this species unquestionably is referable to Amastigogonus Brölemann, 1913 . This small genus has hitherto contained three valid species, all apparently endemic in Tasmania (cf. Hoffman 1980). Further, Iulus verreauxii has long been recognized as a cambaloid, yet without any taxonomic specification ( Jeekel 1981). So this is the first formal reallocation of this enigmatic species since its original description.

Judged from the illustrations presented here ( Fig. 3 ), A. verreauxii seems to have no junior synonyms, being distinguished by the presence of a very faint axial line along the promentum (comparable to an incomplete line only known in A. hardyi [Chamberlin, 1920] as illustrated by Verhoeff [1944] for its junior synonym A. nicholsii Verhoeff, 1944 [cf. Hoffman 1972]), the peculiar shape of the terminal telopoditomeres of the male leg-pair 1, the subequally long branches of the anterior gonopods and, above all, by the securiform distal end of the solenomerite (vs long and flagelliform in the type-species A. tasmanianus Brölemann, 1913 or shorter and flagelliform both in A. hardyi and A. fossuliger Verhoeff, 1944 [cf. Brölemann 1913; Verhoeff 1944; Hoffman 1972]).

The rudimentary posterior gonopods ( Fig. 3H ) appear to be attached like forceps to the wall at the very base of the caudomedian ridges of the anterior gonopods ( Fig. 3E ).

Figures

FIG. 3. — Amastigogonus verreauxii (Gervais, 1847), holotype; A, anterior body end (lateral view); B, midbody segment (lateral view); C, telson (lateral view); D, leg-pair 1 and gnathochilarium (caudal view); E, gonopods (caudal view); F, G, anterior gonopod (front and lateral views, respectively); H, left posterior gonopod (caudal view). Scale bars: A-D, 1.0 mm; E-H, 0.5 mm.