Hyleoglomeris xia, Golovatch, Sergei I., Liu, Weixin & Geoffroy, Jean-Jacques, 2012

Golovatch, Sergei I., Liu, Weixin & Geoffroy, Jean-Jacques, 2012, Review of the millipede genus Hyleoglomeris Verhoeff, 1910 in China, with descriptions of new species (Diplopoda, Glomerida, Glomeridae), Zootaxa 3358, pp. 1-27 : 4-5

Hyleoglomeris xia sp. n.

Fig. 2 .

Material examined: Holotype male ( IZAS), China, Hunan Prov., Linwu County, Sanhe Town, Tianhe Village, Cave 1, 19.06.2009, leg. Tian Mingyi & Xue Zhihong (CHIhn09–LWX02). Paratype. 1 female ( SCAU), same locality, together with holotype.

Name: To emphasize the animal’s ocelli being unpigmented, “ xia ” in Chinese meaning “blind”; a noun in apposition.

Diagnosis: Differs from all congeners in the residual coloration of the antennae, the presence of a lobe on the caudomedial process of the telopod femur, of a setoid filament at the tip of the telopod syncoxital horns, of only a residual telopod tibial process, coupled with a roundly subtrapeziform, slightly concave, central lobe of the telopod syncoxite, as well as a semi-circular notch of male syncoxite 18, and a 3-segmented male telopodite 17. See also Key below.

Description: All characters like in H. tiani sp. n., except as follows.

Length ca 5.0 (holotype) or 6.0 mm (paratype), width 2.5 (holotype) or 3.0 mm (paratype). Coloration nearly entirely pallid, only antennae in paratype very faintly infuscate, brownish. Ocelli at least 4+1, translucid, barely visible. Antennomere 6 ca 2.1–2.2 times as long as high.

Second tergite with 7 or 8 transverse striae, 3 or 4 starting below, one level to, the remaining striae above schism, 3 or 4 frontmost ones crossing the dorsum.

Male leg 17 ( Fig. 2 A) with a very low and rather irregularly shaped outer coxal lobe; telopodite 3-segmented, tarsus with only one subapical spine.

Male leg 18 ( Fig. 2 B) with a rather broadly rounded syncoxital notch; telopodite 4-segmented.

Telopods ( Fig. 2 C-E) with a high, apically slightly concave, sparsely setose, central syncoxital lobe flanked by two setose horns, each latter crowned by a minute, elongate lobule supplied with an adjacent mesal setoid filament ( Fig. 2 E). Prefemur and, to a lesser extent, femur micropapillate laterally. Caudomedial femoral process prominent, subapically with a rounded lobe (lo) on caudal face. Caudomedial process of tibia very obscure, low, membranous; tibial tubercle on caudal face evident, papillate. Tarsus strongly sigmoid, subacuminate apically.

Remarks: Since this species shows such troglomorphic traits as entirely unpigmented tegument and ocelli, it can well prove to be a troglobite. Residual coloration of the antennae in one of the two specimens is noteworthy.

Figures

FIGURE 2. Hyleoglomeris xia sp. n., holotype. A: leg 17, front view. B: leg 18, front view. C: left half of telopods, front view. D: distal part of left half of telopods, caudal view. E: tip of syncoxital horn, front view. Scale bar: 0.2 mm (E drawn not to scale). Abbreviation: lo, lobe on caudomedial femoral process.