Sphaerotherium lichtensteinii Brandt, 1833

Spiegel, Didier Van den, Golovatch, Sergei I. & Hamer, and Michelle L., 2002, Revision of some of the oldest species in the millipede genus Sphaerotherium Brandt, 1833 (Diplopoda, Sphaerotheriida, Sphaerotheriidae), with new synonymies, African Invertebrates 43, pp. 143-181 : 163-164

publication ID	https://doi.org/ 10.5281/zenodo.7666078
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/1A76E76B-4078-FC1F-021E-FD937518D369
treatment provided by	Felipe
scientific name	Sphaerotherium lichtensteinii Brandt, 1833
status

Treatment

Sphaerotherium lichtensteinii Brandt, 1833 View in CoL

( Figs 30a–e View Figs 30 , 39 View Figs 34–42 )

Material studied:

Type material: ^ paralectotype, South Africa, Promontorium Bonae Spei (Cape) , Lichtenstein leg.; ZMB 63 View Materials ;^ lectotype (designated herewith), South Africa, Caput Bonae Spei (Cape) ; ZISP.

Description:

Colour: Head, collum, thoracic shield, tergites and pygidium olive green bordered with dark olive green along posterior margin. Underside and legs dark olive green.

Head with large piliferous punctures growing denser towards clypeus; gnathochilarium covered with hairs. Both sides of labrum broadly rounded laterad, middle scarcely emarginate, with a single median tooth. Ocelli obvious, almost dark olive green.Antennae short, last segment with four apical sensory cones.

Collum smooth, bordered by one row of setae along margin.

Thoracic shield with brim large, accompanied by a row of long setae.

Tergites 2–12 with well-developed keel, surface covered with very dense and fine piliferous punctures, pilosity growing longer along posterior margin. Endotergum with one row of marginal hairs not reaching margin; marginal ridge with row of welldeveloped callosities intruding zone of bristles, no cuticular pattern, intersegmental membrane with small dark cones and very sparse setae ( Figs 30e View Figs 30 , 39 View Figs 34–42 ).

Legs without coxal lobe, tibia not spined above ( Fig. 30c View Figs 30 ).

Male:

Unknown.

Female sexual characters:

Second pairs of legs without coxal lobe. Cyphopod large, covering more than twothirds of caudal surface of coxa 2. Operculum more or less rounded ( Fig. 30d View Figs 30 ).

Comments: Since the original description, this species has been referred to by many authors as incertae sedis. It seems to only be known from two type specimens, with the female kept in ZISP chosen as the lectotype, the one in ZMB as paralectotype. Even though no male material is still available, lichtensteinii is undoubtedly a valid species .

Following Jeekel (2001), we also consider the records of S. lichtensteinii in Borneo and Java by Tömösvary (1885) and Daday (1889), respectively, as erroneous.