Trichopolydesmidae Verhoeff, 1910

Golovatch, Sergei I., Geoffroy, Jean-Jacques & VandenSpiegel, Didier, 2014, Review of the millipede family Trichopolydesmidae in the Oriental realm (Diplopoda, Polydesmida), with descriptions of new genera and species, ZooKeys 414, pp. 19-65 : 26-27

Family Trichopolydesmidae Verhoeff, 1910

Diagnosis.

A family of the superfamily Trichopolydesmoidea , suborder Polydesmidea with 18, 19 or 20 segments, sometimes varying between sexes. Body very small to small (ca 2-20 mm long). Tegument microalveolate, limbus mostly microspiculate. ♂ head with or without vertigial modifications. Antennae often geniculate between segments 5 and 6, antennomeres 5 and 6 each usually with a compact group of bacilliform sensilla apicodorsally, rarely 6th in ♂ with a dorsoparabasal stump. Metaterga usually with 3 regular, more rarely with more and/or irregular, transverse rows of sharp (= simple), bacilliform or clavate setae sometimes borne on knobs; side margin of paraterga incised or tuberculate, with 2 or 3 setae. Paraterga from absent to strongly developed, usually only slightly indented laterally, only exceptionally deeply trilobate ( Trilobodesmus Golovatch & Mauriès, 2007). Pore formula usually normal: 5, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, 15-17 (18,19), but sometimes ozopores completely wanting, rarely unusually large, normally opening flush on dorsal or dorsolateral surface either near penultimate lateral incision or at caudal corner of paraterga. Legs rather short to long, ♂ ones often stouter and elongate, rarely modified, inflated, only sometimes with peculiar ventral setae, including sphaerotrichomes.

Gonopods with subglobose, medially fused coxae, these being rather small to quite large (with correspondingly large gonocoel), micropapillate and at most only slightly setose laterally, sometimes with a frontal (= anterior) process, each supporting a cannula medially (exception: Caucasodesmus Golovatch, 1987, in which there is no cannula) and a sack-shaped to elongate telopodite. The latter ranging from stout and short, deeply sunken inside a deep gonocoel, to slender and long, nearly fully exposed, strongly to modestly curved caudad or mesad, only exceptionally geniculate (distal half directed abruptly laterad: Gonatodesmus gen. n.) or perforating coxal wall with a prominent process ( Schizotelopus Verhoeff, 1941), usually complex, with various processes or outgrowths, sometimes fringed; seminal groove normally terminating distally or apically on a separate branch or tooth (= solenomere), rarely on a tooth inside gonocoel, exceptionally absent ( Caucasodesmus ). Typically neither an accessory seminal chamber nor a hairy pulvillus (a few exceptions, e.g. Gonatodesmus gen. n.).

Type genus.

Trichopolydesmus Verhoeff, 1910.

Remarks.

Most of the above somatic and gonopod features of Trichopolydesmidae are in no way unique to the family, sometimes being also encountered, in various combinations, in the micropolydesmoid family Opisotretidae of the same superfamily Trichopolydesmoidea , as well as in certain macropolydesmoid members of the family Polydesmidae , superfamily Polydesmoidea ( Golovatch et al. 2013, Golovatch 2013). The finely microspiculate limbus is also characteristic of most of the Polydesmidea , and is another feature whose importance was obviously overestimated by Simonsen (1990). It is only the gonopod structure that seems to be characteristic of Trichopolydesmidae , at least so to a certain extent. Superficially, female and/or juvenile trichopolydesmids from the Oriental realm are not or only barely distinguishable from the often sympatric or even syntopic female or juvenile Opisotretidae or smaller Polydesmidae .

The following 13 nominate Oriental genera of Trichopolydesmidae seem to be valid, and are arranged and defined below in alphabetic order.