Afrauropus occiduus Remy, 1959

Scheller, Ulf, 2008, On Afrauropus and Monodauropus, two African genera of Pauropoda (Myriapoda), Zoosystema 30 (4), pp. 795-798 : 796-797

Afrauropus occiduus Remy, 1959

TYPE MATERIAL. — Holotype by monotypy, “ Mâle 9pp. Mts Nimba (Lamotte)” ( PMLA002 ).

According to Remy’s description the collecting data are: “Camp du Gouan, forêt 1200 m, 25 mars, 1957”.

REMARKS

Remy (1959) erected a new genus, Afrauropus , and a new family, Afrauropidae , for this specimen because he found the following features not seen in other pauropods: the antennal globulus had two pyriform organs inside the basket of bracts; the empodia of the tarsi were stalked, and as far as can be seen in Remy’s drawing (1959: fig. 6, 4) he could not find any claws; head with only one single seta (between and posterior of the antennal bases) and tergites without other setae than the bothriotricha. In some characters the specimen was more alike pauropods already described, e.g., as to antennal stalk, pygidial chaetotaxy, leg segmentation and occurrence of bothriotricha.

The renewed study revealed the following observations deviating from or complimentary to Remy’s description:

1) head. There are at least two more tergal setae than Remy found ( Fig. 1A ), both short, striate, blunt and inserted between and close to the antennal bases but more anteriorly than the seta observed by Remy.There might be a seta behind the temporal organs too. No insertion areas of other setae could be seen;

2) antennae. Remy found that the globulus of the sternal antennal branch had two pyriform capsules inside the basket of bracts. As far as the author could see Remy had made a mistake in interpreting the space on both sides of the capsule which both were somewhat pyriform ( Fig. 1B ). In fact the capsule is attached to an unusually long stalk dividing the space inside the bracts in two “pyriform” empty spaces. The globulus of the sternal antennal branch is proportionately large and has inside the basket of bracts a long-stalked and small capsule;

3) legs. Remy found that the empodia were stalked, a character which was unique for Afrauropus when it was described. Stalked empodia have later been found in other species (in Allopauropus Silvestri, 1902 and Cauvetauropus Remy, 1952 ).

As far as can be seen from Remy’s drawing the empodia of leg 4 have no claws, but they are there ( Fig. 1 C-E).

Legs 1 and 9 are 5-segmented, those interposed are 6-segmented, with metatarsus. The latter is short, ring-shaped ( Fig. 1F ), a character also found in other species (in Allopauropus Silvestri, 1902 and Cauvetauropus Remy, 1952 ).

The new observations require a suppression of the family Afrauropidae Remy, 1959 ( Remy 1959: 1020) and a transfer of the genus to Pauropodidae Lubbock, 1867 . The original diagnosis of the genus is amended consequently.

Figures

FIG. 1. — Afrauropus occiduus Remy, 1959, holotype: A, anterior part of head between bases of antennae with three setae; B, sternal antennal branch of right antenna, tergal view; C, distal part of tarsus of leg 5; D, distal part of tarsus of leg 8; E, tarsus and part of tibia of leg 9; F, tarsus, metatarsus and tibia of leg 6. Scale bars: 20 μm.