Mimuloria missouriensis Chamberlin 1928

Hennen, Derek A. & Shelley, Rowland M., 2015, A contribution on the milliped tribe Nannariini (Polydesmida: Xystodesmidae): Revalidation of Mimuloria Chamberlin 1928; identities of Fontaria oblonga C. L. Koch 1847, and Nannaria minor Chamberlin 1918; elucidation of the tribal range; and commentaries on Nannaria Chamberlin 1918, and Oenomaea Hoffman 1964, Insecta Mundi 2015 (418), pp. 1-21 : 9-10

Mimuloria missouriensis Chamberlin 1928

Fig. 15 .

Mimuloria missouriensis Chamberlin 1928: 155 . Attems 1940: 490. Causey 1952: 106, fig. 6a. Chamberlin and Hoffman 1958: 38.

Nannaria missouriensis: Hoffman 1999: 367 . Marek et al. 2014: 37.

Type specimens. Male holotype and two male and three female paratypes ( NMNH) collected by M. J. Brown on an unspecified date in 1926 in St. Charles, St. Charles Co., Missouri ; one male,

one female, and three juvenile paratypes ( NMNH) taken by the same collector at the same locality on an unknown date in 1927.

Diagnosis. Acropodite bending or arching strongly mediad; prefemoral process subrhomboid or triangular, without projections.

Holotype. Highly fragmented, length unmeasurable; maximum width ~ 4.5 mm. Somatic features agreeing closely with those of M. castanea with following exceptions. Facial setae not detected. Antennae reaching back to midlength of 3 rd tergite; relative lengths of antennomeres 3>6>2>4=5>1>7. Margins of collum slightly raised laterad. Anterior corners of 2 nd – 4 th paranota rounded; caudolateral corners of 5 th –19 th slightly extended. Relative lengths of postgonopodal podomeres 3>2>1>6>4>5. Coxae with one long, distoventral macroseta; prefemora, femora, and postfemora sparsely hirsute; tibiae and tarsi more densely so. Prefemoral spines short, only slightly overhanging femora. Tarsal claws spatulate on legs 1–9. Gonopods in situ and gonopod structure as in M. castanea except prefemoral process entirely triangular or subrhomboid and nubbin-like, without projections ( Fig. 15 ).

Paratypes. The male paratypes agree with the holotype in all particulars.

Variation. The short, unadorned prefemoral process can be either triangular or subrhomboid, and these different configurations can also result from slight differences in orientation, as shown in our illustrations of the holotype of M. davidcauseyi ( Fig. 16–17 ); the basal prefemoral spur is apically blunt in the former and triangular in the latter. Some triangular prefemoral processes of M. missouriensis are substantially larger than mere nubbins.

Distribution. East- and southcentral Missouri from St. Charles to Morgan cos. and traversing the Missouri River, an east/west distance of about 192 km (120 mi). North/south, the range extends around 96 km (60 mi), from the latitudes of St. Charles to Phelps cos.

Published records. Missouri: St. Charles Co .. St. Charles ( Chamberlin 1928, Chamberlin and Hoffman 1958, Hoffman 1999, Marek et al. 2014).

New samples and records. Missouri: Callaway Co., no further data, FF, 7 May 1969, W. W. Dowdy (FSCA). Cole Co., Jefferson City, M, F, October 1964, W. W. Dowdy (NCSM) and LePage Rd., F, 15 April 1965, W. W. Dowdy (NMNH). Morgan Co., Versailles, M, April 1959, J. N. Brooks (NCSM). Phelps Co., 9.6 km (6.0 mi) S Rolla, M, 11 October 1966, J. and W. Ivie (AMNH). St. Charles Co., St. Charles, 4 juvs., 1926 (NMNH).

Remarks. We retain M. missouriensis as a valid species because the gonopodal prefemoral processes lack projections. As previously mentioned, if the inner prefemoral projection of M. castanea were completely broken, the resultant configuration would be that of M. missouriensis . Consequently, we carefully examined all prefemoral processes for evidence of breakage and finding none, conclude that the unadorned structures in this species are genetically-based rather than reflecting dissection errors. Samples of M. missouriensis also cluster ( Fig. 2 ) and its range is parapatric with that of M. castanea to the south; one would expect random occurrences of unadorned processes throughout M. castanea ’s range if the projections had been broken.

Attems (1938) reported M. missouriensis but completely missed F. castanea nor did he mention the latter in the Strongylosomidae volume ( Attems 1937).

Figures

Figure 2. Distribution of Mimuloria (colored symbols) with peripheral tribal records (black and green stars). Dots, castanea group. Red, M. castanea; green, M. missouriensis; blue, M. davidcauseyi. Diamonds, dilatata group. Solid orange, M. d. dilatata; open orange, M. dilatata sigmoidea; pink, M. rhysodesmoides; violet question mark, Mimuloria sp. The course of the Missouri River across Missouri is shown in light blue.

Figures 9–17. The castanea group, genitalic features. 9–14) M. castanea. 9) Telopodite of left gonopod of holotype, ventral view. 10) Prefemoral process of variant with long inner branch, ventral view. 11–13) Distal extremities of acropodital variants in medial, dorsomedial, and dorsal views, respectively. 14) Left cyphopod of female paratype, subventral view. 15) M. missouriensis holotype, telopodite of left gonopod, ventral view. 16–17) M. davidcauseyi holotype. 16) Telopodite of left gonopod, ventral view. 17) The same submedial view. dl, dorsal apical lobe; pfp, prefemoral process; r, receptacle; tl, terminal triangular lamina; v, valve; vl, ventral apical lobe.