Notopyrgodesmus kulla Mesibov

Mesibov, Robert, 2012, The first native Pyrgodesmidae (Diplopoda, Polydesmida) from Australia, ZooKeys 217, pp. 63-85 : 70-74

Notopyrgodesmus kulla Mesibov sp. n. Figs 2E, 3C, 4D, 5D, 7F, 8C, 8D, 10A, 10B

Holotype.

Male, 11 km W by N of Bald Hill, McIlwraith Range, Qld, 13°44'S, 143°20'E ± 2 km, 520 m, 27 June - 12 July 1989, T.A. Weir, ANIC berlesate 1113, search party campsite, closed forest, flood debris, ANIC 64-000240.

Paratypes.

ANIC: 3 males, 3 females, details as for holotype, 64-000239; 1 male, 2 females, same details but ANIC berlesate 1111, leaf and log litter, 64-000242; 1 female, 1 stadium 7 male, same details but ANIC berlesate 1114, leaf litter and flood debris, 64-000241; 2 males, 8 km W by N of Bald Hill, McIlwraith Range, Qld, 13°45'S, 143°22'E ± 2 km, 500 m, 27 June - 12 July 1989, T.A. Weir, ANIC berlesate 1117, upper Leo Creek site, closed forest, leaf litter, 64-000243.

Other material.

ANIC: 1 male, Noah Creek, Qld, 16°07'S, 145°25'E ± 2 km, 50 m, 21 June 1971, R.W. Taylor and J. Feehan, ANIC berlesate 321, rainforest, 64-000245; 1 female, 1 stadium 7 female, Cooper Creek near Daintree, Qld, 16°11'S, 145 °26'E ± 2 km, 50 m, 22 June 1971, R.W. Taylor and J. Feehan, ANIC berlesate 334, rainforest, 64-000246; 2 males, 1 female, Moses Creek, 4 km N by E of Mt Finnigan, Qld, 15°47'S, 145°17'E ± 2 km, 14-16 October 1980, T. Weir, ANIC berlesate 696, 64-000244. QM: 2 males, 1 female, 1 stadium 7 male, 2.5 km SW of Mt Hartley via Cooktown, Qld, 15°47'45"S, 145°18'17"E ± 500 m, 610 m, 24 April 1982, G. Monteith, D. Yeates and D. Cook, QM berlesate 400, rainforest, sieved litter, S92793; 2 females, Table Mountain, 10 km S of Cape Tribulation, Qld, 16°09'30"S, 145°26'07"E ± 500 m, 320 m, 24 April 1983, G. Monteith and D. Cook, QM berlesate 542, rainforest, sieved litter, S92801; 1 male, 1 female, 3 stadium 7 males, Mt Finn igan summit, Qld, 15°49'06"S, 145°16'45"E ± 500 m, 1100 m, 30 November 1985, G. Monteith and D. Cook, QM berlesate 700, rainforest, sieved litter, S92794; 1 male, 2 females, 1 stadium 6 female, same details but 21 November 1998, G. Monteith, QM berlesate 981, S92795; 1 stadium 7 female, Mt Misery summit via Shiptons Flat, Qld, 15°52'46"S, 145°13'32"E ± 500 m, 850 m, 6 December 1990, G. Monteith, G. Thompson, R. Sheridan, D. Cook and L. Roberts, S92798; 1 female, Mt Pieter Botte, Qld, 16°04'37"S, 145°24'22"E ± 500 m, 950 m, 21 November 1993, G. Monteith, H. Janetzki, L. Roberts and D. Cook, S92800; 1 male, 1 female, Mt Boolbun South, Qld, 15°57'10"S, 145°08'23"E ± 500 m, 850-1000 m, 4-6 November 1995, G. Monteith, D. Cook and L. Roberts, S92796; 1 male, 1 stadium 7 male, same details but 850 m, 6 November 1995, G. Monteith, QM berlesate 896, rainforest, sieved litter, S92799; 1 female, 1 stadium 7 female, same details but QM berlesate 897, S92797.

Diagnosis.

Readily distinguished from Notopyrgodesmus lanosus sp. n. in having ozopores on porosteles on rings 5, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, 15, 16, and in lacking ‘spines’ (tight clusters of hair-like cuticular outgrowths) on the tips of the paramedian tubercles. Readily distinguished from Notopyrgodesmus weiri sp. n. in larger size (adults 9-10 mm in length vs 6 mm) and in the lack of a deep notch separating the lateral marginal lobes on the paranota.

Description.

Colour in alcohol pale yellow, with brown encrusted soil particles on vertex, frons, collum, tergites, metatergites, preanal ring, gonocoxae and midline of sternites (Fig. 10A). Males and females with head + 20 rings. Male/female approximate measurements: length 9/10 mm; ring 12: overall width 1.8/1.8 mm, overall width/prozonite width 2.0/1.8, maximum vertical diameter 1.0/1.2 mm.

Head with vertex and frons roughened, clypeus smooth and setose. Postantennal groove deep; antennal sockets separated by ca 1 × a socket diameter; antennomere relative widths 5>(3,4,6)>2, relative lengths 5>(3,4,5)>6.

Collum completely covering head in dorsal view (Fig. 3C); anterior margin of collum parallel to ground, weakly divided into 10 rounded lobes; main part of collum nearly perpendicular to ground in lateral view. Overall ring widths 2-17 about equal; rings 18 and 19 narrower.

Midbody metatergite sculpture sometimes obscured by encrusted soil particles, but clearly patterned in 2 transverse rows (Fig. 10A, B): 2 low paramedian tubercles; dorsum between paramedian tubercles with 2 anterior raised areas and triangular posterior raised area, apex of the latter pointed anteriorly; 2 (sometimes 3) low dorsolateral tubercles, the posterior tubercle largest, sometimes extending slightly beyond posterior margin of metatergite and set slightly more dorsal than anterior dorsolateral tubercle. A prominent, posterolaterally directed tubercle on posterior metatergal margin, just above paranotal base. Metatergite surface broken into complex but more or less regular mosaics of low raised areas between paramedian tubercles and dorsolateral tubercles, and between dorsolateral tubercles and posterior paranotal lobe. Posterior paramedian tubercles enlarged as apically rounded cones and directed posterodorsally on rings 17-19; ring 18 tubercles largest (Fig. 4D).

Paranota (Fig. 5D) arising low on body, very slightly directed posteriorly, declined at ca 30°, pitched slightly so anterior margin is lower than posterior margin. Ring 2 paranotum expanded anterodistally, lateral margin very weakly divided into 3 rounded lobes. From ring 3 onwards, anterior margin straight, undivided; 2 lateral marginal lobes (ring 3 sometimes undivided); posterior margin with deep notch basally. Rings 18 and 19 paranota directed posterolaterally.

Metatergal surface details obscured by soil particles and secretions, but some margins with very small, hair-like cuticular outgrowths with expanded tips; no setae evident on collum, tergites or metatergites. Prozonites with lozenge-shaped raised elements anterior to suture and subspherical knobs posterior to suture; suture marked by a ridge of longitudinally elongated elements. Limbus a single row of very thin lobes with more or less straight distal margins, and with 1-2 very thin spikes above each lobe (Fig. 2E).

Ozopores (Fig. 5D, 7F) on porosteles near posterolateral corner of paranota on rings 5, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, 15, 16; not evident on 17-19; porosteles directed somewhat posterolaterally, cylindrical, apically slightly expanded.

Sternites slightly roughened, not setose, longer than wide; transverse impression slightly deeper than longitudinal. Legs short, hidden by paranota in dorsal view; relative podomere lengths (femur, tarsus)>prefemur>(postfemur, tibia). Spiracles not evident.

Preanal ring with 3+3 lobes; epiproct short, bluntly rounded, spinnerets in square array below apex; hypoproct rounded-triangular.

Gonopore a small, inconspicuous opening on medial surface of leg 2 coxa. Aperture transversely ovoid, ca 1/3 width of ring 7 prozonite. Gonocoxa roughly quadrangular in medial view; ventrolateral surface roughened and convex; medial surface forming gonocoel, this surface basally setose. Telopodite (Figs 8C, D) attached at anterodorsal corner of gonocoel, directed towards posteroventral corner. Telopodite without setae, cylindrical at base, distal two-thirds shaped like curled leaf, concave medially; apex acuminate; posterobasal margin curled medially; anterobasal margin similarly curved, extended posteriorly as subcylindrical solenomere bent slightly basally and terminating below apex of telopodite, solenomere apex narrowing but blunt. Prostatic groove following the curled posterobasal margin of telopodite to solenomere base, opening at solenomere tip. When retracted, gonocoxae forming two low, rounded mounds, their flat medial surfaces appressed with narrow longitudinal slit between, telopodites not visible.

Female with epigyne ca 1/3 ring width, slightly raised, rounded-rectangular with straight distal margin; cyphopods not examined.

Distribution.

Wet forest on Cape York Peninsula south to the Daintree area in tropical northern Queensland, a north-south distance of ca 350 km (Fig. 11). Co-occurs with Notopyrgodesmus weiri sp. n. in the McIlwraith Range.

Etymology.

Acronym, noun in apposition, for the four Aboriginal clans who are traditional owners of the McIlwraith Range: Kaanju, Umpila, Lama Lama and Ayapathu (http://www.derm.qld.gov.au/parks/kulla-mcilwraith-range/culture.html; accessed 12 July 2012). KULLA is also the name of the national park located in the Range.

Remarks.

The specimens from the southern part of the Notopyrgodesmus kulla range (Fig. 10A) are mostly smaller (males ca 8 mm long, midbody overall width ca 1.5 mm) than those from the type locality and are less encrusted with soil particles.