Snoqualmia Shear, 2012

Shear, William A., 2012, Snoqualmia, a new polydesmid milliped genus from the northwestern United States, with a description of two new species (Diplopoda, Polydesmida, Polydesmidae), Insecta Mundi 2012 (238), pp. 1-13 : 6-7

Snoqualmia Shear , new genus

Type species: Snoqualmia snoqualmie Shear , new species.

Etymology. Named for the region of the type locality of the type species, the valley of the Snoqualmie River, Washington, USA. As for the river, Snoqualmie Pass, which carries the major highway I-90 through the Cascade Range at an elevation of 921 m (3,022 ft), is named for the Snoqualmie people, who occupied the valley to the west and used the pass.

Diagnosis. Distinct from any other polydesmid genus due to the complex gonopods with many acute processes, and in the distally swollen, slightly decurved pygidial process.

Description. Small (<7 mm length) polydesmidan millipeds with 19 postcephalic segments (collum + 17 trunk segments + telson), lightly pigmented; metatergites with reduced, toothed paranota, three rows of short, acute setae arising from small pustules, 14-17 in each row. Pygidium (epiproct) short, pygidial process relatively long, decurved, distally swollen, with usual 4 spinnerets, each set in a distinct depression. Males with crassate pregonopodal and postgonopodal legs, lacking modifications of anterior sternites. Gonostome oval, as wide as seventh segment prozonite. Gonopods with large, globular coxae, apparently immovable, filling entire gonostome and sometimes projecting from it, tightly appressed in midline, prefemora sparsely setose, basally transverse, then parallel. Endomerite absent. Gonopod distal zone strongly toothed, serrate, or with many thin, acute branches. Basal part of distal zone with lateral alate process coarsely toothed. Pulvillus sessile ( S. snoqualmie ) or at tip of long process ( S. idaho ). Distal zone with acute terminal process.

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