Eustrongylosoma tifalmin, Golovatch, Sergei I. & Stoev, Pavel, 2011

Golovatch, Sergei I. & Stoev, Pavel, 2011, Review of the millipede genus Eustrongylosoma Silvestri, 1896 in the island of New Guinea, with descriptions of nine new species (Diplopoda, Polydesmida, Paradoxosomatidae), International Journal of Myriapodology 5, pp. 1-26 : 11-13

Eustrongylosoma tifalmin sp. n. Figs 34-40

Type material.

Holotype♂(NMNHS),Papua New Guinea, Western Province, Finim Tel area, October 1975, B.S.E. (leg. P. Beron).

Name.

“Tifalmin” is the name of one of the main local tribes. A noun in apposition.

Diagnosis.

Distinguished by the relatively large size, coupled with a peculiar, albeit vague, colour pattern and a deeply split distal part of the solenophore (see also Key below).

Description.

Length ca 24 mm, width of pro- and metazona 1.9 and 2.6 mm, respectively. Coloration rather uniformly castaneous brown with a broad, rather vague, light yellow-brown, axial stripe running from collum to end of epiproct; much of prozona dorsally and dorsolaterally slightly infuscate, up to dark brown; head and antennae light brown; legs mostly light yellow-brown, only tibiae and tarsi infuscate, dark brown.

In width, head = segments 5-17> 2> collum> 3 = 4. Head densely setose, only vertex bare. Antennae medium-sized, slightly clavate, reaching beyond segment 3 dorsally; antennomere 2 longer than 6th. Collum transversely oval, lateral flaps small, regularly and broadly rounded. Tegument generally smooth and shining, only below paraterga faintly microgranulate; rear halves of metaterga sometimes faintly rugulose. Paraterga of postcollum segments moderately well developed (Figs 34, 35), set low (at about 1/2-1/3 midbody height), subhorizontal, evidently thicker in pore-bearing segments than in poreless ones; paratergum 2 with a small anterolateral denticle, its front margin straight, its caudal corner slightly obtusangular, rather narrowly rounded, not extended beyond rear tergal margin; following paraterga without denticulations at lateral margin, sometimes with only a faint undulation in front of ozopore near caudal third. Caudal corners of postcollum paraterga always rounded, at most only slightly extended beyond rear tergal margin, more evidently so only in segments 16-19. Lateral calluses of paraterga medium-sized, broader in pore-bearing segments, each delimited by a sulcus both dorsally and, in caudal 1/3, ventrally. Ozopores lateral, lying inside an ovoid groove. Tergal setae mostly abraded, a few retained only on collum, about 1/5 the length of metaterga, setation pattern sometimes traceable at least as 1+1 paramedian insertion points in front row. Axial line wanting. Transverse sulcus on metaterga rather superficial, nearly reaching bases of paraterga in metaterga 5-18. Stricture between pro- and metazona rather faintly striolate. Pleurosternal carinae small, complete in segments 2-4, a sharp or rounded caudal denticle retained also in segments 5-8, thereafter entirely missing. Epiproct (Fig. 36) short, flattened dorsoventrally, digitiform; apical papillae large, tip narrowly emarginate; subapical papillae missing. Hypoproct (Fig. 37) roundly subtrapeziform, setigerous paramedian knobs at caudal margin well-separated and small.

Sterna rather sparsely setose; a rather high, linguiform, roundly subtriangular, ventral, setose lamina only between coxae 4 (Fig. 38). Legs relatively long, midbody ones ca 1.6-1.7 times longer than body height, apparently slightly incrassate and longer compared to ♀; ♂evident tarsal and distotibial brushes increasingly well reduced towards legs of segment 19 and 9, respectively.

Gonopods as in Figs 39 & 40. Tip (j) of solenophore very deeply biramous, larger (= outer) branch being faintly bidentate, smaller (= inner) one spiniform. Apicolateral lobe (l) of femorite rather small.