Brochopeltis mjoebergi Verhoeff, 1924

Mesibov, Robert, 2015, Redescription of Brochopeltismjoebergi Verhoeff, 1924 and description of a second Brochopeltis species from Australia (Diplopoda, Polydesmida, Paradoxosomatidae), ZooKeys 504, pp. 59-73 : 61-64

Taxon classification Animalia Polydesmida Paradoxosomatidae

Brochopeltis mjoebergi Verhoeff, 1924 Figs 1, 2A, 3A, 3B, 5; Fig. 4 (map)

Brochopeltis mjoebergi : Verhoeff 1924: 33 (misprinted here as mjoebergii ; see Remarks), Fig. 20 in pl. 2; 1932: Fig. 980 (p. 1597). Attems 1937: 275, 276, Fig. 343 (p. 275).

Brochopeltis mjoebergi : Jeekel 1968: 19, 30; 1971: 218. Nguyen and Sierwald 2013: 1155.

Brochopeltis mjoebergi queenslandica: Verhoeff 1924: 35. Attems 1937: 276. syn. n.

Brochopeltis mjoebergi queenslandica: Jeekel 1968: 19, 30. Nguyen and Sierwald 2013: 1155. syn. n.

Lectotype

(here designated). 1 male, Herberton, Qld, E. Mjöberg, 1913, NHRS KASI000000031, in 2 pieces in separate vial.

Paralectotypes.

NHRS: 2 entire females and parts of 3 males, 2 females and 1 juvenile, males with gonopods intact, collecting details as for lectotype, KASI000000031, in alcohol with printed label "Queensl. / Mjöberg” and Verhoeff labels "Brochopeltis / mjöbergi Verh. / Herberton" (in pencil) and "Brochopeltis Mjöbergi Verh. / Queensl. Herberton. / [Colleg.] Mjöberg. [Determ.] Verhoeff." (in pen); slide mount of 1 right and 1 left gonopod and 2 male eighth legs, Atherton, Qld, same collector and year, slide 266, KASI000000026, Verhoeff label "Brochopeltis mjöbergi Verh. / Atherton, 8.B. / Queensland. a2", Johns label "Lectotype ♂ / parts of body in alcohol. / P.M. Johns 10.viii.67"; 1 male, body broken into 4 parts and missing ring 7, same collecting details, KASI000000026, in alcohol with Johns label "Lectotype ♂ / genitalia on slide / P.M. Johns 10.viii.67"; slide mount of 1 right and 1 left gonopod, same collecting details, NHRS slide 267, KASI000000028, Verhoeff label "Brochopeltis mjöbergi Verh. / Atherton. / Queensland. a1", Johns label "Paralectotype ♂ / Body in alcohol / P.M. Johns 10.viii.67"; 2 entire females and parts of at least another 3 females, same collecting details, KASI000000028, in alcohol with printed labels "Queensl. / Mjöberg” and “Jan.”, label in pencil "Atherton / scrub / Jan 1913", Verhoeff label in pen "Brochopeltis Mjöbergii Verh. / Atherton. Januar. /[Colleg.] Mjöberg. [Determ.] Verhoeff.", Johns label "Paralectotypes 5♀♀ / P.M. Johns 10.viii.67", also a smaller vial with rings 7-8 and 9? from 1 male, ring 7 without gonopods, Johns label "Paralectotype ♂ / genitalia on slide / P.M. Johns 10.viii.67"; parts of 3 females, same collecting details, KASI000000027, in alcohol with two printed labels "Queensl. / Mjöberg”, Verhoeff label "Brochopeltis / mjöbergi Verh. / Atherton" (in pencil) and Johns label "Paralectotypes 3♀♀ / P.M. Johns 10.viii.67". ZMB (not examined): 1 male, Queensland, 1913, E. Mjöberg, ZMB 5710 (listed in Moritz and Fischer 1978; see Remarks). ZSM (not examined): 1 specimen in alcohol, Atherton, Qld, January 1913, E. Mjöberg, ZSM/Myr-20033548.00; 2 specimens in alcohol, same details, ZSM/Myr-20052193.00; 1 right and 1 left gonopod and 2 male first legs mounted on slide, same details, ZSM-A-20033548.

Lectotype of Brochopeltis mjoebergi queenslandica

(here designated). Male, Bellenden Ker, Qld, E. Mjöberg, 1913, comprising (1) slide mount of 1 right and 1 left gonopod, slide 265, KASI000000029, Verhoeff label "Brochopeltis / mjöbergi / queenslandica / Verh. / Bellenden Ker. / Queensland b1", Johns label "Lectotype ♂ / body in alcohol / P.M. Johns 10.viii.67", and (2) body in alcohol in small vial, broken between rings 5 and 6 and rings 9 and 10, KASI000000029, Johns label "Lectotype ♂ / genitalia on slide / P.M. Johns 10.viii.67".

Paralectotype of Brochopeltis mjoebergi queenslandica.

NHRS: Male, collecting details as for lectotype, in alcohol in small vial, body broken into four parts, ring 7 isolated and with intact gonopods, KASI000000030, printed label "Queensl. / Mjöberg”, Johns label "Paralectotype / P.M. Johns 10.viii.67".

Brochopeltis mjoebergi queenslandica lectotype and paralectotype vials in larger vial with two Verhoeff labels "Brochopeltis mjöbergi / queenslandica Verh. / Bellenden Ker" (in pencil) and "Brochopeltis Mjöbergi queens- / Bellenden Ker. landica Verh. / [Colleg.] Mjöberg. [Determ.] Verhoeff." (in pen).

Other material.

25 males, 15 females and 1 juvenile in AM, ANIC and QM (see Suppl. material 1 for details).

Description.

(Based on lectotype and specimens collected 5-10 km from type locality in 1998.) Male/female approximate measurements: length 35/38 mm, midbody paranota width 5.2/5.4 mm, prozonite width 3.5/4.4 mm, maximum vertical diameter 3.5/4.4 mm. Well-coloured animals (Fig. 1A) very dark brown (almost black) on flanks and along narrow, longitudinal, mid-dorsal band, lighter reddish brown ventrally and in broad, paramedian, dorsal bands; paranota with pale margins; head and antennae dark brown, the antennae lighter basally; legs medium brown; body colour fades with long-term storage in alcohol.

Male with vertex and frons sparsely setose, clypeus moderately setose; vertigial sulcus distinct, ending at dorsal level of antennal sockets; post-antennal groove shallow; antennal sockets separated by ca 1.3 × socket diameter. Antenna filiform, reaching dorsally to rear of ring 3; antennomeres with relative lengths (2=3)>(4=5=6); 6 apically widest. In dorsal view, head narrower than collum paranota; relative ring widths collum <(2=3=4) <(5 to17). Collum with lateral margin strongly produced as paranotum, anterior and lateral margins smoothly convex, posterior margin more or less straight. Paranota on haplo- and diplosegments with margins thickened dorsally, so dorsal paranotal surface appears slightly depressed. Ring 2 paranotum with lateral margin slightly lower than lateral margins of collum and ring 3 paranota (Fig. 1B); posterior corner produced posteriorly as broad triangle. Paranota of rings 3 and 4 curving posteriorly, almost sickle-shaped, posterior corners bluntly rounded. Paranota on diplosegments 5-17 set at ca 3/4 ring height, directed slightly dorsally with posterior corner highest; anterior margin curving smoothly into nearly longitudinal lateral margin, posterior corner strongly produced as bluntly pointed triangle almost reaching waist of next ring; lateral margin thicker on pore-bearing rings. Paranota reduced but still prominent on rings 18 and 19, with strongly produced posterior corners. Pleural keels on rings 2-4 only, on rings 3, 4 reduced to small, rounded, posterolaterally directed processes. Prozonites and metazonites bare and finely textured, giving dull appearance; transverse furrow at ca 1/2 metazonite length, distinct, ca 2/3 ring width, not reaching paranotal base; waist short, shallow, faintly sculptured with low longitudinal ridges; limbus a narrow, thin, continuous sheet. Pore formula normal; ozopore small, round, opening laterally on thickened paranotal margin almost at level of posterior metazonite margin. Spiracles on diplosegments above and just anterior to leg bases; spiracular filters forming rounded fold in inverted, tight U-shape in spiracular opening; anterior spiracle with anterodorsal portion of rim produced to partly cover strongly emergent, anterodorsal portion of filter. Midbody sternites very sparsely setose, as wide as long, transverse impression more distinct than longitudinal impression; no cones or projections on any sternites. Midbody legs slender, relative podomere lengths femur>tarsus>prefemur>(postfemur= tibia); femur ca 1.3 × as long as tarsus; anterior leg prefemora not swollen dorsally. Pre-anal ring sparsely setose; epiproct extending past anal valves, in dorsal view tapering and truncate, tip ca 1/4 width of pre-anal ring; hypoproct paraboloid; spinnerets in rectangular array, much wider than long.

Leg 1 (Fig. 1C) with very small, rounded process at ca 2/3 length of medial femur surface, directed slightly anteromedially. Gonopore small, round, opening on short distomedial bulge of leg 2 coxa. Sternal lamella (Fig. 1D) ca 90% of width between leg 4 bases, short, more or less vertical; lateral margins straight, vertical; corners rounded; ventral margin very slightly convex. Dense brush setae on tarsi of legs 1-7 only.

Gonopod aperture just wide enough to accommodate gonocoxae, 1/3-1/2 ring 7 prozonite width. Gonopod telopodites (Figs 2A, 3A, B) parallel, almost reaching leg 6 bases when retracted; sternite between legs 6 and 7 bases slightly excavate. Rounded, transverse ridge just anterior to aperture on either side, the two ridges confluent medially.

Gonocoxa short, the anterodistal surface with low, rounded protuberance bearing sparse, long setae on distal side. Prefemur large, C-shaped, the distal end projecting posterolaterally as rounded extension reaching ca 1/5 telopodite height; long setae on posterior and posteromedial surfaces of prefemur. Cannula small, arising from gonocoxa apex. Telopodite beyond prefemur without branches, the basal portion straight and slightly expanded distally; at ca 2/3 telopodite height, telopodite constricted, flattening and curving anterolaterally in wide spiral to level of starting point of curve and anterior to it, then curving anterolaterally, the apex slightly expanded with distal margin rounded. Prostatic groove (Figs 3A, 3B) running straight on medial surface of basal portion of telopodite beyond prefemur, then following curve of telopodite to open at apex.

Female without leg modifications; epigynum 1/4-1/3 ring width, slightly raised in small rounded triangle medially; cyphopods not examined.

Distribution.

In forest litter within a range envelope of ca 1500 km2 on and near the Atherton Tableland, in the Wet Tropics of far north Queensland (Fig. 4).

Remarks.

Types. Verhoeff (1924: 35) reported that apart from a few pairs of Brochopeltis mjoebergi ("[a]usser einigen Pärchen”) from Atherton collected in January, he examined three males and four females from Herberton and one male and a juvenile from "Cedar Creek" (Ravenshoe). Brochopeltis mjoebergi queenslandica was based on two males from Bellenden Ker. All collections were by Erik Mjöberg in early 1913 ( Ferrier 2006).

Most of the syntypes are accounted for, with a few discrepancies. The NHRS material comprises parts of two males and eight females from Atherton; parts of four (not three) males, four females and a juvenile from Herberton; and parts of two males from Bellenden Ker. ZSM has parts of at least two males from Atherton (J. Spelda, in litt.), and ZMB has one male labeled “Queensland” collected by Mjöberg in 1913 (J. Dunlop, in litt.). The latter may be the Ravenshoe male but if so the Ravenshoe juvenile appears to be missing.

The lectotypifications by P.M. Johns (see label information in types section, above) were never published. I have designated an entire male from Herberton in the type series as the Brochopeltis mjoebergi lectotype because the slide-mounted gonopods of Atherton males are distorted (see also below, on subspecies queenslandica).

Species epithet. The spelling mjoebergii on p. 33 in Verhoeff (1924) is apparently a typesetting error. The name is spelled mjoebergi on pp. 35, 133 and 138 with Brochopeltis , and an additional 26 times in Verhoeff (1924) with the new taxa Cyliosoma queenslandicum mjoebergi, Monographis mjoebergi , Poratobolus mjoebergi , Rhinotus mjoebergi and Siphonophora mjoebergi . The spelling mjoebergi is also used on all but one of the handwritten Verhoeff labels I have seen.

Subspecies queenslandica. Verhoeff distinguished this subspecies mainly on minor variation in colour pattern, writing "Structure otherwise as in the preceding form, the gonopods also agreeing with those of the other, but the solenomere bends not sharply bent, but totally rounded, thus even more strongly spirally curved" ( Verhoeff 1924: 35, my translation). The supposed gonopod difference is an artefact produced during slide preparation (Fig. 5). Verhoeff mounted the spiral acropodites of the gonopods of the mjoebergi queenslandica lectotype more or less in the plane of the spiral, while those of the mjoebergi mjoebergi paralectotypes are mounted with the spirals compressed and bent. The intact gonopods of the mjoebergi queenslandica paralectotype spiral in just the same way as gonopods of mjoebergi mjoebergi from Herberton. The subspecies queenslandica is here made a synonym of the nominate subspecies.

Other notes. Brochopeltis mjoebergi appears to be abundant in rainforest and open forest on the western side of the Atherton Tableland (Fig. 4). I have not seen this large and easily recognised millipede in collections from elsewhere in the Queensland Wet Tropics. The region has been entomologically well sampled since Mjöberg’s expedition and is home to many other described and undescribed paradoxosomatids.

An anonymous Australian collector who calls Brochopeltis mjoebergi "fire millipede" posted a YouTube video in August 2014 documenting how this species can be kept in captivity (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg6IlPF0YCo; accessed 9 March 2015).