Peplomeris magna Golovatch, 1983

Nguyen, Anh D., Sierwald, Petra & Marek, Paul E., 2019, The pill millipedes of Vietnam: a key to genera and descriptions of five new species (Diplopoda: Glomerida: Glomeridae), Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 67, pp. 260-297 : 267-274

Peplomeris magna Golovatch, 1983

(Figs. 5–18)

Material examined. 1 male, 3 females, 1 juvenile ( FMNH INS 3716068 ) Vietnam, Ninh Binh Province , Nho Quan District, Cuc Phuong National Park, Bong , botanical garden, trail starting at restaurant, 20.3483°N, 105.5979°E, collected in the morning, 22 September 2016, coll. Petra Sierwald et al .; 3 females, 1 juvenile ( FMNH INS 3716014 ) Ninh Binh

Fig. 5. Peplomeris magna Golovatch, 1983 from Cuc Phuong

National Park, habitus. Photo by: Anh D. Nguyen, image not to scale.

Province, Nho Quan District, Cuc Phuong National Park , 20.3167°N, 105.6081°E, in the afternoon, 22 September 2016, coll. Petra Sierwald et al.; 1 male, 3 females ( FMNH INS 3716128 ) Vietnam, Hanoi, Ba Vi District, Ba Vi National Park , road to the temples, midway point, 21.0753°N, 105.3661°E, naturally protected forests, in the morning, 20 September 2016, coll. Petra Sierwald et al.; 4 females (IEBR–Myr 656) Vietnam, Ninh Binh Province, Nho Quan District, Cuc Phuong National Park, Bong station , forests, 20.3483°N, 105.5979°E, 28 July–2 August 2017, coll. Anh D. Nguyen.

Remarks. The species was previously known from only its type locality, Cuc Phuong National Park ( Golovatch, 1983b). New records expand its distribution northward by about 150 km.

With several specimens available, P. magna is illustrated here in detail. In most respects, the morphological details correspond well to the general bauplan of the order Glomerida (Wesener in Minelli, 2015: 377). Head with horseshoe-shaped Tömösváry organ, row of 7 ocelli and a single ocellus above as common in the order (7+1 pattern) ( Figs. 8A, D , 13A, B ). Antennae laterally flattened, consisting of 7 antennomeres, the 6 th being the longest, with numerous apical sensory cones as specific for the genus Peplomeris ( Figs. 6B, D , 8 A–F, 13A, C, D) on antennomere 7. Gnathochilarium ( Figs. 9A, B , 14 A–D) with wide gula, large cardines and stipites, large fused lamellae lingualis, mentum knob-shaped, subdivided longitudinally, in Peplomeris larger than in other Glomerida (compare with Eupeyerimhoffia , fig. 3H in Oeyen & Wesener, 2015). Stipites with larger inner and smaller outer palps, each palp with numerous sense cones ( Figs. 14C, D ). Mandible ( Figs. 12A, B ) agrees with the bauplan for the order: gnathal lobe with a single external tooth (ex), four inner teeth (in), 7–8 pectinate lamellae (pl); folded intermediate area (ia), and a molar plate (mp) with a single transverse groove. Collum (co) with two striae ( Figs. 9D , 12C ), thoracic shield (tho) ( Figs. 9D , 12 C–E) with striae and well-developed schism (sch) and hyposchism (hs). Leg-pair 1 in males ( Figs. 10A, B ) with two rows of setae. Leg-pair 2 in males ( Figs. 10C, D , 16 A–C) with a coxal setiferous tubercle (occurring also in females) and the gonopore opening produced on a broad, mesally located knob on the posterior side of the 2 nd leg coxa. Leg-pair 2 in females ( Figs. 11 A–E, 15A–D) with mesal coxal setiferous tubercle and posteriorly located vulva embedded on the posterior side in the 2 nd leg-pair coxae. Vulva consists of a mesal plate and a lateral plate, with an operculum above. The vulval structure is strikingly similar to the vulva in Eupeyerimhoffia ( Oeyen & Wesener, 2015, figs. 5D, E).

Leg-pair 17 in males ( Figs. 17E, F ) with four podomeres and a large coxal lobe (col). Male telopods ( Figs. 17 A–C, 18A–D) with a medially notched syncoxial lobe (syl) (termed median lingual lamina in Golovatch, 1983b), erect setose lateral syncoxial horns (syh), and a telopod with a small apical mesal prefemoral trichostele (pret) ( Fig. 18D ), a large projecting mesal distal femoral process (dfp), and a stout distal tibial process (tp) on the caudal side. Telopod tarsus hook-shaped. Description and illustration given in the original description of this species by Golovatch (1983) matches the telopod found in these specimens.

Figures

Fig. 8. Peplomeris magna Golovatch, 1983, male (FMNH INS 3716068) from Cuc Phuong National Park. Ninh Binh Prov., northern Vietnam. A,head, anterior view, normal light; B, UV light; C, head, sublateral view, normal light; D, UV light; E, tip of left antenna, normal light; F, UV light. Scale bar = 1 mm.

Fig. 13. Peplomeris magna Golovatch, 1983, male (FMNH INS 3716068) from Cuc Phuong National Park. Ninh Binh Prov., northern Vietnam. A, head, anterior view; B, lateral view; C, D, antenna and antennal tip. TO = Tömösváry organ; an = antennomere. Scale bar in µm.

Fig. 6. Peplomeris magna Golovatch, 1983, male (FMNH INS 3716068) from Cuc Phuong National Park, Ninh Binh Prov, northern Vietnam. A, whole body, dorsal view; B, ventral view; C, lateral view; D, antenna, subdorsal view. Scale bar = 1 mm.

Fig. 9. Peplomeris magna Golovatch, 1983, male (FMNH INS 3716068) from Cuc Phuong National Park. Ninh Binh Prov., northern Vietnam. A, gnathochilarum, ventral view, normal light; B, UV light; C, thoracic shield and collum, anterior view, normal light; D, UV light. Scale bar = 1 mm (A, B); 2 mm (C, D).

Fig. 14. Peplomeris magna Golovatch, 1983, male (FMNH INS 3716068) from Cuc Phuong National Park. Ninh Binh Prov., northern Vietnam. A, B, gnathochilarum, external and internal view; C, D, palps. Scale bar in µm.

Fig. 12. Peplomeris magna Golovatch, 1983, male (FMNH INS 3716068) from Cuc Phuong National Park. Ninh Binh Prov., northern Vietnam. A, B, mandible, internal view; C, thoracic shield and collum, anterior view; D, lateral part of thoracic shield, anterior view; E, dorsal view. Scale bar in µm.

Fig. 10. Peplomeris magna Golovatch, 1983, male (FMNH INS 3716068) from Cuc Phuong National Park. Ninh Binh Prov., northern Vietnam. A, male first legs, normal light; B, UV light; C, male second legs, posterior view, normal light; D, UV light. Scale bar = 1 mm.

Fig. 16. Peplomeris magna Golovatch, 1983, male (FMNH INS 3716068) from Cuc Phuong National Park. Ninh Binh Prov., northern Vietnam. A, B, male second legs and gonopores, posterior view; C, coxial cones of male first legs; D, male leg 3. Scale bar in µm.

Fig. 11. Peplomeris magna Golovatch, 1983, male (FMNH INS 3716068) from Cuc Phuong National Park. Ninh Binh Prov., northern Vietnam. A, female second legs, posterior view, normal light; B, UV light; C, anterior view, normal light; D, UV light; E, subventral view, normal light; F, UV light. Scale bar = 1 mm.

Fig. 17. Peplomeris magna Golovatch, 1983, male (FMNH INS 3716068) from Cuc Phuong National Park, Ninh Binh Prov, northern Vietnam. A, telopods, posterior view, normal light; B, UV light; C, telopods, anterior view, normal light; D, UV light; E, legs 17, normal light; F, UV light. Scale bar = 1 mm.

Fig. 18. Peplomeris magna Golovatch, 1983, male (FMNH INS 3716068) from Cuc Phuong National Park, Ninh Binh Prov, northern Vietnam. A, telopods, anterior view; B, posterior view; C, syncoxial lobe and horns, anterior view; D, right telopod, posterior view. Scale bar = 200 µm.