Boreohesperus Shear, 1992: 778

Car, Catherine A. & Harvey, Mark S., 2013, A review of the Western Australian keeled millipede genus Boreohesperus (Diplopoda, Polydesmida, Paradoxosomatidae), ZooKeys 290, pp. 1-19 : 3

Boreohesperus Shear, 1992: 778

Type species.

Boreohesperus capensis Shear, 1992, by original designation.

Diagnosis.

Four other genera of australiosomatines, apart from Boreohesperus , possess gonopods that are divided into two main branches, namely Dicladosoma Brölemann, 1913, Dicladosomella Jeekel, 1982, Oncocladosoma Jeekel, 1985 and Somethus Chamberlin, 1920. Boreohesperus may be distinguished from the other genera by the two main branches of its gonopod arising from a relatively short but distinct femorite (e.g. Fig. 3E). In Dicladosoma , the two thick squat gonopod branches arise from the prefemur, while in the other three genera, the gonopod is split into the two main branches much more deeply than in Boreohesperus , almost to the acropodite base.

Description.

Modified from Shear (1992). Twenty body segments, each smooth and unsculptured, with distinct waist between prozonite and metazonite. Transverse sternal cross-impressions deeper than longitudinal. Paranota, if present, small, poorly developed. Normal pore formula. Legs and antennae with no remarkable features. Gonopod with coxa relatively broad and robust; prefemur sub-globose; femorite length approximately one-quarter to one-third of acropodite length; remainder of gonopod split into two branches, a long, slender, slightly undulating seminiferous branch with curving tip, and a shorter, more upright, pointed branch, often with an additional process near its tip.