Amplaria adamsi, Shear, William A. & Krejca, Jean K., 2007

Shear, William A. & Krejca, Jean K., 2007, Revalidation of the milliped genus Amplaria Chamberlin 1941 (Diplopoda, Chordeumatida, Striariidae), and description of two new species from caves in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, California, Zootaxa 1532, pp. 23-39 : 35-38

Amplaria adamsi , n. sp.

Figs. 16–22 , 25

Types: Male holotype from Hidden Cave, Sequoia National Park, Tulare Co., California, collected 15 November 2003 by Jean Krejca and V. Loftin (FMNH); male and female paratypes from Overhang Cave, Sequoia National Park, Tulare Co., California, collected 29 April 2004 by J. Krejca and P. Sprouse (FMNH).

Diagnosis: This species is smaller, more darkly pigmented ( Fig. 25 ), and has more ocelli than A. muiri ; details of the gonopods are also different.

Etymology: After the late Ansel Adams, an extraordinary photographer whose finest pictures depict the Sierra Nevada.

Description: Male: length, 12.0 mm, width, 0.89 mm. Structure much as in A. muiri , but with 5–7 small, irregular, depigmented ocelli. Metazonites with reticulate pattern of purplish brown, darker pigment along posterior borders of metazonites, edges of crests. Legs and antennae light tan to yellowish white. Secondary sexual modifications as described for genus.

Gonopods ( Figs. 17–22 ) robust, anterior angiocoxites appressed in midline, apically only gently curved, with even margin lacking teeth, broad, thin lateral branch not much curved, with teeth as shown in Figs. 21, 22 ; posterior angiocoxites with flagellar sheathing branch long, accessory process extending a little beyond tip of sheathing groove, posterior branch narrow, geniculate, evenly rounded apically. Colpocoxites typical of genus (note: poorly sclerotized lateral lobe of colpocoxite collapses in SEM preparation). Legpair 9 as in Fig. 16 .

Female: length, 12.0 mm, width, 0.81 mm. Similar to male in nonsexual characters.

Distribution: See Table 1 and fig. 23.

Habitat and abundance: Thirteen specimens from Hidden Cave, Overhang Cave and Clough Cave were positively identified, and another immature specimen from Windy Pit was tentatively identified ( Table 1 ), and the following data are based on those 14 individuals. Air temperatures were recorded for 10 of those collections and the average air temperature where specimens were collected was 11.2 deg C (range = 8 to 15.3 deg C). Substrates were recorded for 13 of those collections, and 54% (7/13) were found under a rock on the floor, 15% (2/13) were found on a gravel floor, and 8% (1/13) were found on each of these substrates: under woody debris, on a silt floor, on ringtail scat, and on a calcite wall. Of those 13 collections, 62% (8/13) were associated with some kind of energy source, including woody debris, bat guano, ringtail scat, roots, and moldy applesauce. For all fourteen specimens, the average distance they were found into the cave was 74 m (range = 0 to 153 m). On average one A. adamsi was found per 25 linear meters of cave passage (range = 10 m to 70 m), and 54 person minutes of search effort (range = 16 to 154 person minutes).

Methods for habitat and abundance: The same methods were used for this species as for Amplaria muiri , above.

Notes: Amplaria adamsi has been collected in caves of Cluster 5, namely Clough, Hidden, Overhang, and Windy Pit Caves ( Table 1 , Fig. 23 ). Males were not taken in Windy Pit Cave, but it seems unlikely that cave harbors a different species. Noticeably smaller than A. muiri and consistently pigmented, with 5–7 pale ocelli, A. adamsi is at best a troglophile, and surface collecting in suitable habitats would undoubtedly turn it up. Having described these two species, it should be noted that all the caves named on the map ( Fig. 23 ) were visited, many repeatedly, so the absence of strirariids from a given cave is important. Collectors noted, however, that repeat visits continued to produce new species records and that the fauna were sparse and infrequently detected, suggesting that continued search efforts may yield more localities. These two species might be quite local, but in the absence of extensive surface collecting, full distribution of either species has not been established.

Figures

FIGURE 23. Map of parts of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, Tulare Co., California, showing locations of caves studied in 2003 – 2004 by JKK and associates. Note that some of the cave names are shortened for ease of viewing on the map, typically the word “ Cave ” is left off. See text for the full names of caves in which Amplaria specimens were collected.

FIGURES 15 – 18. New species of Amplaria, males, scanning electron micrographs. 15. A. muiri, ninth legpair, anterior view. 16 – 18. A. adamsi, n. sp. 16. Ninth legpair, anterior view. 17. Left gonopod, mesal view. 18. Right gonopod, lateral view.

FIGURES 19 – 22. Amplaria adamsi, n. sp. 19. Right gonopod, lateral view. 20. Right gonopod, mesal view. 21. Tip of internal branch of anterior angiocoxite, lateral view. 22. Same, anterior view.

FIGURES 24 – 26. 24. Amplaria muiri in Lange Cave. 25. Amplaria adamsii in Clough Cave. 26. Amplaria muiri ecology in Carmoe Crevice. To the right is an individual of the salamander Ensatina eschscholtzii, found near a large group of Amplaria muiri that were feeding on the seed of a California Bay Laurel (left). The salamander was not observed eating the millipeds, but likely preys on them.