Boreviulisoma badium (Attems, 1952)

Reboleira, Ana Sofia P. S. & Enghoff, Henrik, 2013, The genus Boreviulisoma Brolemann, 1928 — an Iberian-N African outlier of a mainly tropical tribe of millipedes (Diplopoda: Polydesmida: Paradoxosomatidae), Zootaxa 3646 (5), pp. 516-528 : 522-523

Boreviulisoma badium (Attems, 1952)

Figs 15–19

Liliputia badia Attems, 1952

Boreviulisoma badia: Geoffroy 2013

Material examined: photos of body rings and gonopods of the holotype (the only known specimen) from Spain, Sevilla, Alcalá de Guadaíra, kindly provided by Mr. Edmund Schiller, Naturhistorisches Museum Wien, where the holotype is housed.

Name: not stated by Attems, but badius is a Latin adjective meaning reddish-brown, which agrees with the coloration of the species. The transfer from Liliputia (feminine) to Boreviulisoma (neuter) warrants the gender change from badia to badium .

Diagnosis. Differs from congeneric species by having femoral knobs on male legs 3–26. Further differs from B. liouvillei by having simple, pointed metazonal setae and from B. barrocalense n. sp. by being reddish-brown.

FIGURES 15–19. Boreviulisoma badium (Attems, 1952) , holotype. 15—3rd leg, 16—6th leg. 17—ca. 26th leg. 18—right gonopod, mesal view. 19 - left gonopod, lateral view. (Courtesy of E. Schiller). Scale bars: 100µm.

Descriptive notes. Male femora from leg-pair 3 to at least 26 with ventral tubercles situated a little beyond midlength (Figs. 15–17), but not as distal as in B. barrocalense n. sp. (leg-pairs 1 and 2 are missing from the holotype).

Gonopods (Figs. 18–19) as in B. barrocalense n. sp., but apically rounded, apparently without processes.

Remarks. Jeekel (1967) synonymized Liliputia badia with Boreviulisoma liouvillei “after a comparison of the pertinent descriptions and drawings by Attems, 1952, Brölemann, 1928, and Schubart, 1960”. Jeekel (1967) further noticed, “The only really important point of difference in the descriptions is that Attems noticed the presence of a ventro-femoral tubercle on the legs of the male of badia . Obviously, these tiny knobs were overlooked by Brölemann”. Also Schubart (1960) did not mention femoral tubercles. The available material unfortunately does not allow us to ascertain whether such knobs are present on the Moroccan Boreviulisoma . There is another distinguishing character of the Moroccan species, namely, that the tergal setae are short and clavate ( Figs 22–23 , also according to both Brolemann 1928 and Schubart 1960), whereas those of badium (Attems 1952: fig. 25, confirmed by photos of the holotype which are, however, unsuitable for reproduction) are thin and pointed, as in B. barrocalense n. sp. ( Fig. 6 ). Therefore, while we agree to the generic synonymy ( Boreviulisoma = Liliputia ), we regard B. badium as a valid species.

Figures

FIGURES 20 – 23. Boreviulisoma liouvillei Brolemann, 1928, Ƥ syntype, SEM images of uncoated specimen. 20 — three midbody rings, dorsal view. 21 — three midbody rings, lateral view. 22 – 23 — a metazonal seta. Scale bars: 20, 21 — 100 µm; 22, 23 — 10 µm.

FIGURES 2 – 6. Boreviulisoma barrocalense n. sp., Ƥ paratype, SEM images. 2 — midbody ring, dorsal view. 3 — midbody ring, lateral view. 4 — detail of structure between prozona (top) and metazona (bottom), with two empty seta sockets. 5 — left side ozopore in peritrema, with three empty seta sockets. 6 — three metazonal setae and limbus. Scale bars: 2, 3 — 100 µm and 4, 5, 6 — 10 µm.