Brachydesmus (Eubrachydesmus) superus Latzel, 1884

Golovatch, Sergei, Evsyukov, Aleksandr & Reip, Hans, 2016, The millipede family Polydesmidae in the Caucasus (Diplopoda: Polydesmida), Zootaxa 4085 (1), pp. 1-51 : 18-19

Brachydesmus (Eubrachydesmus) superus Latzel, 1884

Fig. 9 , Map 3

Brachydesmus superus— Muralewicz, 1907: 340, 349 (R); 1927: 6 (R); Zuev, 2014: 349 (R).

Material examined. 5 males, 11 females ( ZMUM), RUSSIA, Stavropol Prov., Zheleznovodsk, park at foot of Mt Zheleznaya , litter and under stones, 30.V.1982, leg. S. Golovatch.

5 males, 7 females ( ZMUM), ABKHAZIA, Nizhnyaya Yashtukha near Sukhumi , tobacco plantation, 29.III.1987, leg. A. Markossian.

Descriptive notes. Length ca 6.5 – 10 mm, width of midbody metazonae 0.8 – 1.2 mm (male, female), metazonite to prozonite width ratio <1.6 ( Fig. 9 A ). Live coloration usually uniformly light grey-brown to pallid.

All characters as in B. assimilis ( Fig. 9 ), except as follows. Tegument particularly shiny ( Fig. 9 A ). Paraterga mostly poorly declivous, only slightly rounded laterally; caudolateral corner obtuse-angled only until segment 6, pointed or nearly pointed and increasingly well drawn behind rear tergal margin starting with segment 11 or 12 ( Fig. 9A ). Fore margins of paraterga largely straight, anterolateral corner angular. Tergal setae a little longer, mostly sharp. Male prefemora strongly bulging laterad. Gonopod ( Fig. 9B ) unipartite, slender, only slightly falcate, ventrally with several teeth or spines and a prominent hairy pulvillus (pu) in distal part.

Remarks. Zuev’s (2014) claim for the first record of this ubiquitous anthropochore species in the Caucasus (at Stavropol) is wrong, as he had overlooked Muralewicz’s (1907, 1927) reports from Vladikavkaz, from between Balta and Lars, N Ossetia, and from Sukhumi, Abkhazia. However, those two latter records are not mapped here pending verification (Map 3).

Figures

FIGURE 9. Brachydesmus superus Latzel, 1884. A: habitus, entire body, dorsal view, male from Stavropol, Russia. B: left gonopod, male from Zheleznovodsk, Stavropol Prov., Russia. Designation: pu, hairy pulvillus. Picture A taken by R. Zuev. Scale bars: 1.0 mm (A), 0.1 mm (B).