Lissodesmus modestus Chamberlin 1920
Creators: name: Mesibov, Robert
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2005
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Diplopoda
Polydesmida
Dalodesmidae
Lissodesmus
Lissodesmus modestus

description: Lissodesmus modestus Chamberlin, 1920
Figures 4A, 5A, 7A, 8A, 52, 53, 69 mod, 70mod, 71mod, 73 (map)
Lissodesmus modestus Chamberlin, 1920: 135.— Attems, 1940:
490.— Jeekel, 1970: 336.— Jeekel, 1984: 91.
Material examined. Holotype. Male, Australia, Tasmania. Russell Falls, G.H. Hardy, MCZ 4644. The type is in three pieces but is otherwise in excellent condition. An accompanying label reads “ Jan 1915 Russell Falls”.
Paratypes. Female, details as for holotype, MCZ 4645.
Other material. 57 males, 82 females and 32 juveniles from Arve Road, Bracken Ridge, Collins Cap, Coopers Creek, Dromedary Creek, Edwards Road, Espies Craig, Fortescue Bay, Gold Creek, Hastings Caves, Ida Bay cave IB-51, Judds Creek, Kallista Creek, Little Florentine River, Mt Clark, Mt Field National Park, Mt Mangana (Bruny Island), Mt Misery, Mt Wellington, Myrtle Forest Creek, Needles Picnic Area, Pelham Tier, Pendulum Palace Cave (Precipitous Bluff), Picton River, Plenty River and Tobys Hill (see “ Lissodesmus supplement” for details).
Description. Male c. 16 mm long, H = 1.4 mm. In alcohol, well-coloured specimens under low magnification very light brown in body colour, with fairly uniform red speckling across metatergites and in a transverse band posteriorly on prozonites. Antenna long, fairly slender (Fig. 69 mod). Paranota fairly wide, R = 1.5 (Fig. 70 mod), posterior corners not turned up (Fig. 4A) but projecting slightly outwards in most specimens (see also Jeekel, 1984: 93, Fig. 1). Legs robust, tarsus slightly shorter than femur, tibia with prominent ventral distal swelling (Fig. 71 mod). Telopodite (Figs 52, 53) reaching leg 4 when retracted. [Note: the convention adopted here of labelling as “mesal” a telopodite view centred on the solenomere is particularly misleading for this species. As seen in Fig. 52, the solenomere origin is on the anterior surface of the telopodite in situ.] Solenomere arising at about half the telopodite height, directed basally at about 45° to telopodite axis but gradually curving distally, terminating with a small subapical projection at just under half the prefemoral process height. Tibiotarsus rod-like, pointed, directed more or less parallel to solenomere, about one-third the length of solenomere and much thinner. Femoral process arising distal to solenomere origin, large, blade-like with expanded, leaf-shaped tip, curving posteromesally and terminating just proximal to tip of prefemoral process. Prefemoral process at origin about two-thirds as wide as telopodite base, at about half-length tapering rapidly and bending posteromesally, then bending distally, the last one-third straight, with a row of short, mainly posterodistally and mesodistally directed teeth on mesal edge. Uncus identification uncertain; possibly represented by low, pointed ridge on prefemoral process at about the level of solenomere tip.
Distribution and habitat. In wet eucalypt forest and cool temperate rainforest over c. 4500 km 2 in southern and south-east Tasmania (Fig. 73), from Pelham to the south coast, from the Little Florentine River east to the Channel district, and from near sea level to at least 940 m. L. modestus also occurs on South Bruny Island and the Tasman Peninsula, but has not yet been recorded on either North Bruny Island or Forestier Peninsula. It occurs in caves at Ida Bay and Precipitous Bluff. L. modestus is hard to find in many parts of its range.
Remarks. As noted in the Introduction, there are minor errors with the antennomeres and sphaerotrichomes in the description given by Jeekel (1984). The gonopod coxae are also said (Jeekel, 1984: 93) to be “solidly connected”, which suggests “fused”; they are in fact separate and lightly joined at only one point, as in all Lissodesmus species. Jeekel’s description is otherwise accurate and very detailed.
description: Published as part of Mesibov, Robert, 2005, The millipede genus Lissodesmus Chamberlin, 1920 (Diplopoda: Polydesmida: Dalodesmidae) from Tasmania and Victoria, with descriptions of a new genus and 24 new species, pp. 103-146 in Memoirs of Museum Victoria 62 (2) on pages 119-120, DOI: 10.24199/j.mmv.2005.62.4, http://zenodo.org/record/8064747