Cylichnogaster

Shear, William A., 2016, Redescription of the South African millipede Cylichnogaster lawrencei Verhoeff, 1937 and notes on the family Siphonotidae (Diplopoda, Polyzoniida), Zootaxa 4079 (1), pp. 119-128 : 119-120

The genus Cylichnogaster

Verhoeff originally proposed the new genus and species Cylichnogaster lawrencei in a paper written in German and published in Zoologischer Anzeiger on January 15, 1937 ( Verhoeff 1937a). As this was the only species in the genus at the time of the proposal, it formally typifies the genus. Later in 1937, a second paper, this time in English, appeared in the Annals of the South African Museum ( Verhoeff 1937b). In this paper, essentially an incomplete version of the earlier one, C. lawrencei is described as a new species but the genus Cylichnogaster is not mentioned separately and is not typified. Fortunately the earlier publication took care of that detail. In any case the year for both the genus and species remains 1937. The description of C. lawrencei was immediately followed in the same journal by a second article in English ( Verhoeff 1937c), which included the remainder of the contents of the earlier German one.

Verhoeff also set up a subfamily of Buriniidae (= Bureniidae, Siphonotidae ), Cylichnogastrinae, which contained only Cylichnogaster ( Verhoeff 1937a, 1937c). As will be explained, Buriniidae became a synonym of Siphonotidae when Verhoeff included the genus Siphonotus in the family. The comparisons with Burinia that are detailed by Verhoeff (1937c) make it plain that these two genera are quite similar in many morphological details. The subfamily Cylichnogastrinae appears to be based almost solely on the ability of C. lawrencei to enroll, on its smooth tergites, and on its low number of diplosegments. A lower rank may be more appropriate for this taxon.