Orthomorpha karschi (Pocock, 1889)

Likhitrakarn, Natdanai, Golovatch, Sergei I. & Panha, Somsak, 2011, Revision of the Southeast Asian millipede genus Orthomorpha Bollman, 1893, with the proposal of a new genus (Diplopoda, Polydesmida, Paradoxosomatidae), ZooKeys 131, pp. 1-161 : 83-84

Orthomorpha karschi (Pocock, 1889)

Paradesmus Karschi Pocock 1889: 293 (D).

Orthomorpha karschii - Pocock 1895: 817 (D); Attems 1936: 197 (D); 1937: 70 (D); Jeekel 1963: 265 (M); 1964: 361 (M, D); Hoffman 1977: 700 (M).

Orthomorpha Karschii - Attems 1898: 327 (D).

Orthomorpha Karschi - Attems 1898: 333 (D); 1914: 192 (M, D).

Orthomorha karschi - Jeekel 1970: 290 (D); Jeekel 1968: 56 (M); Hoffman 1973: 363 (M); Golovatch 1998: 42 (D).

Remarks.

This species has been beautifully redescribed by Jeekel (1970) from non-type ♀ material from southern Tenasserim (= Tanintharyi), Myanmar, referred to by Pocock (1895). Based on the illustration of a gonopod by Attems (1937), Orthomorpha karschi appears to be very similar to Orthomorpha insularis , apparently differing only in a slightly shorter gonofemorite ( Jeekel 1970). However, Pocock’s (1889) original drawing shows the femorite to be as slender as in Orthomorpha insularis . There is only a single micropreparation in the NHMW collection containing the gonopod depicted by Attems (1937).

This species seems to be endemic to southern Myanmar together with the adjacent Mergui Archipelago and Thailand. Attems (1937) referred to material from Siam (= Thailand), without giving a precise locality, but Enghoff (2005), in his catalogue of the Thai millipedes, must have overlooked that record.