Atalopharetra johnsi, Mesibov, Robert, 2005

Mesibov, Robert, 2005, (Diplopoda: Polydesmida: Dalodesmidae) from Tasmania, Australia, Zootaxa 1034, pp. 21-42 : 23-27

publication ID	https://doi.org/ 10.5281/zenodo.169707
DOI	https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6267599
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/CE026E33-FFBA-FF49-EF15-73658D27EB33
treatment provided by	Plazi
scientific name	Atalopharetra johnsi
status	sp. nov.

Treatment

Atalopharetra johnsi View in CoL n. sp.

Figs. 1 View FIGURE 1 A(?), 6, 7; map Fig. 16 View FIGURE 16

Holotype: Male, Tarraleah, Tasmania, DP472167 View Materials (42°17’55”S 146°21’39”E), 720 m, pitfall emptied 19.v.1992, R. Brereton, QVM 23:15089.

Paratypes: 1 female, Tarraleah, approx. DP530160 View Materials (42°18’S 146°25’E), v.1978, V.V. Hickman, cyphopods everted, QVM 23:15114; 1 female, Tarraleah, DP472200 View Materials (42°16’08”S 146°21’40”E), 790 m, pitfall emptied 17.xii.1991, R. Brereton, QVM 23:15113; 1 female, Tarraleah, DP473162 View Materials (42°18’11”S 146°21’43”E), 710 m, 15.iv.1992, R. Mesibov, QVM 23:15107; 1 male, Tarraleah, DP474161 View Materials (42°18’14”S 146°21’47”E), 690 m, pitfall emptied 15.iv.1992, R. Brereton, QVM 23:15099; 2 males, Tarraleah, DP474162 View Materials (42°18’11”S 146°21’47”E), 700 m, 15.iv.1992, R. Mesibov, QVM 23:15101; 2 females, same details, QVM 23:15109; 1 male, Tarraleah, DP474166 View Materials (42°17’58”S 146°21’48”E), 710 m, pitfall emptied 15.iv.1992, R. Brereton, QVM 23:15090; 1 male, Tarraleah, DP473162 View Materials (42°18’11”S 146°21’43”E), 710 m, 17.iv.1992, R. Mesibov, QVM 23:15087; 2 females, same details, QVM 23:15105; 1 male, same details but DP473165 View Materials (42°18’01”S 146°21’43”E), 710 m, 22.iv.1992, QVM 23:15097; 1 stadium VII male, same details, QVM 23:15108; 1 stadium VII male, same details but DP471196 View Materials (42°16’21”S 146°21’35”E), 760 m, 2.v.1992, QVM 23:15106; 2 males, same details but DP473197 View Materials (42°16’17”S 146°21’44”E), 780 m, 5.v.1992, AM KS91433 (formerly QVM 23:15095); 2 stadium VII males, 2 females, same details, QVM 23:15110; 1 male, same details but DP475197 View Materials (42°16’17”S 146°21’53”E), 750 m, 8.v.1992, QVM 23:15098; 1 male, same details but DP477197 View Materials (42°16’17”S 146°22’02”E), 740 m, QVM 23:15100; 1 female, 1 stadium VII female, same details, QVM 23:15111; 1 stadium VII female, same details but DP475197 View Materials (42°16’17”S 146°21’53”E), 750 m, 9.v.1992, QVM 23:15112; 2 males, Tarraleah, DP471194 View Materials (42°16’27”S 146°21’35”E), 750 m, pitfall emptied 19.v.1992, R. Brereton, QVM 23:15093; 1 male, same details but pitfall emptied 20.x.1992, QVM 23:15091; 1 male, same details but DP472200 View Materials (42°16’08”S 146°21’40”E), 790 m, QVM 23:15088; 1 male, same details but 780 m, QVM 23:15092; 2 males, same details but DP473197 View Materials (42°16’17”S 146°21’44”E), 770 m, QVM 23:15094; 1 male, same details but DP474166 View Materials (42°17’58”S 146°21’48”E), 710 m, QVM 23:15096.

Other material examined: 28 males, 1 female; see Appendix for details.

Diagnosis: Wellpigmented; paranota reduced to slight lateral swellings; large, laminar, hoodlike distal process divided into two slightly overlapping portions; limbus elements tablike. Distinguished from A. bashfordi by recumbent solenomere and by long, bluntly rounded extension of posterodistal corner of hood.

Description: Male ca. 22 mm long; segment 12 height ca. 1.9 mm, width ca. 2.0 mm. Body colour in alcohol pale to redbrown with darker redbrown colouration on metazonites, darkening posteriorly, and on distal podomeres. Cuticle wellcalcified, brittle. Live animal with strongly smelling defensive secretion, the odour persisting for many years in alcoholic samples. Head very slightly convex in front, sparsely covered with long setae except at top of vertex; antennae ( Fig. 3 View FIGURE 3 A) long, slender, separated by about twice a socket diameter, sockets well impressed ventrally and laterally; antennomere 6 the widest, antennomere lengths decreasing in order 2, (3,6), (4,5). Collum slightly narrower than head, semicircular in dorsal view, with a few long setae near anterior margin. Segment 2 slightly wider than collum, segments 3–4 increasingly but only slightly wider than 2, segments 5– 18 more or less equal in width. Segments 2–18 smooth dorsally with a few long setae near anterior margin. Paranota on all segments greatly reduced, on posterior segments to slight lateral swellings ( Fig. 1 View FIGURE 1 A), marked laterally by thin cuticular ridge bordering a narrow, upwardly and shallowly concave groove, level in lateral view; segment 2 paranotal margin lower than collum corner and segment 3 margin, margins on segments 3, 4 and 5 progressively higher, margins on segments 5–17 at about the same level, paranotum indistinct or missing on segment 18. Limbus (as for A. bashfordi n. sp., Figs. 2 View FIGURE 2 A, 5B) composed of tablike elements with rounded, finely toothed tips. Ozopore opening dorsally near posterior corner of paranotum. Preanal ring sparsely setose; epiproct with truncated tip, extending well past anal valves; hypoproct trapezoidal. Spiracles (as for A. bashfordi n. sp., Fig. 5 View FIGURE 5 A) large with interior lining protruding, on diplosegments with anterior spiracle above anterior leg and posterior spiracle about midway between anterior and posterior legs. Sternites (as for A. bashfordi n. sp., Fig. 2 View FIGURE 2 A) longer than wide, crossimpressions welldeveloped. Anterior legs swollen with dorsally convex prefemur ( Fig. 3 View FIGURE 3 E); tarsus and femur somewhat longer than prefemur, much longer than postfemur and tibia; sphaerotrichomes (as for A. bashfordi n. sp., Fig. 4 View FIGURE 4 A) on tibia and tarsus only, shafts gently tapered; dense “brush” setae (as for A. bashfordi n. sp., Fig. 4 View FIGURE 4 B) on prefemur, femur and postfemur, with slightly expanded tips. Leg 2 coxa with large gonopore with raised rim on slight ventromedial swelling. Leg 7 bases wellseparated to accommodate retracted gonopods, leg 6 bases close together. Gonopod aperture ovoid, about half the width of segment 7 prozonite, the posterolateral portions of the rim extended. Gonopod coxae tapering distally, lightly joined mediodistally, with large, rounded apical extension on medial surface ( Fig. 7 View FIGURE 7 ), cannula prominent. Telopodites ( Figs. 6 View FIGURE 6 , 7 View FIGURE 7 ) short, broad, just reaching leg 7 bases when retracted. Telopodite somewhat flattened anteroposteriorly near base, expanding at about half the telopodite height into a thinwalled hood concave posteromedially, the hood divided distally into two more or less equal portions with finely fringed edges, the medial portion with a quadrate distal corner, the lateral portion slightly overlapping the medial portion and with a small number of long, straight teeth along anterodistal edge, the latter terminating anteriorly in a curved, tapering corner and the posterodistal corner extended as a long, bluntly pointed, bladelike process curving medially and basally. Solenomere narrowly cylindrical with expanded and flattened tip, arising on anteromedial surface of telopodite near base, extending distally and posteriorly before bending laterally to enter base of hood, the most distal portion bent anteriorly, recumbent on finely fringed portion of inner surface of hood and terminating at about twothirds the telopodite height (orientation of solenomere tip in Fig. 6 View FIGURE 6 is an artefact of preparation). Telopodite sparsely setose on posterolateral surface to about the level of hood base. Female larger than male and similar in overall appearance, but anterior legs of female not swollen; posterior rim of epigynum elevated medially as rounded, toothlike projection; cyphopods not examined.

Distribution and habitat: In richly organic soil in wet eucalypt forest and cool temperate rainforest over at least 4000 km 2 in southern and southwestern Tasmania ( Fig. 16 View FIGURE 16 ), from Tarraleah and the Franklin River in the north to Precipitous Bluff in the south, and east to Pelverata Falls, and from near sea level to ca. 800 m. A. johnsi may extend further west if represented by some of the unidentified Atalopharetra in Fig. 15 View FIGURE 15 . A. johnsi has been found to cooccur with A. bashfordi at several localities and the range overlap of the two species is at least 2000 km 2 ( Fig. 16 View FIGURE 16 ). A. johnsi cooccurs with A. eberhardi in Quetzalcoatl Conduit (cave) near Precipitous Bluff.

Etymology: In honour of Peter Johns, formerly of the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand, who first studied specimens of this genus during a visit to Tasmania in the early 1970s.

Remarks: Two males from caves near Precipitous Bluff (QVM 23:12457, QVM 23:12621) and one from a cave near Ida Bay (QVM 23:12830) have the A. johnsi gonopod form but wider paranota than in epigean males of this species. In all three males the paranotal margins are more or less parallel to the body and the posterior corner of the paranotum extends as a small, rounded, slightly turned up tooth.