Syndesmogenus estelleae Enghoff 2022, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Enghoff, Henrik
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Diplopoda
Spirostreptida
Odontopygidae
Syndesmogenus
Syndesmogenus estelleae

description: Syndesmogenus estelleae sp. nov.
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: C3B90F9A-A6C6-46EF-9F38-396451EE0EDC
Figs 56–57
Diagnosis
Differs from other species of Syndesmogenus by the unique, ‘tilted triangular’ shape of the cucullus.
Etymology
After Estelle Bourdon, French palaeontologist, last resident of ‘Hotel Dolichoiulus’.
Material examined (total 1♂)
Holotype TANZANIA • ♂; Kilimanjaro Region, 18 km SSE of Mwanga, 4.5 km SE of Lembeni, North Pare Mts, Kiverenge Forest; 3º48.692′ S 37º38.873′ E; 1576 m a.s.l.; 7 Nov.; 2010; V.I. Gusarov leg.; sifting forest litter; small trees; NHMO.
Description (male)
SIZE. Length 30 mm, diameter 1.5 mm, 69 podous rings, no apodous rings in front of telson.
COLOUR. After 9 years in 100% alcohol in a freezer head, antennae, and pregonopodal rings medium to dark brown; postgonopodal rings below ozopores, and legs, light yellowish; rings above ozopores medium brown with a broad, ill-defined median lighter band. Telson ventrally light yellowish, dorsally mottled.
SUPRALABRAL SETAE. 5.
MANDIBULAR STIPES. Distal margin shallowly bilobed.
ANAL VALVES. No traces of dorsal or ventral denticles or ‘corners’; margin slightly raised, apparently no marginal setae.
LIMBUS (Fig. 56F). Margin with well-separated, smooth, pointed-triangular lobes.
LEGS. Well-developed ventral pads on postfemur and tibia from leg-pair four; shortly behind gonopods, pads decreasing in size and eventually disappearing.
FIRST PAIR OF LEGS (Fig. 56G–I). Prefemoral lobes relatively slender, rounded-triangular in ventral view. A single coxosternal seta (CXS) close to lateral margin of coxosternum, well separated from prefemoral lobes. Prefemora with a single mesapical seta (APS) and a few lateral setae (LPS).
STERNUM 9 (Not illustrated). Similar to that of S. voiensis (see Fig. 58H).
GONOPOD COXA (Fig. 56A–E). Slender, straight, posteriolaterally ca at mid-height with a small thumblike process (th), anterolaterally with a tiny subtriangular process (tr) at ca same level; cucullus (CU) with a large, blunt-triangular process (mcp). Proplica (PP) simple, proplical lobe hidden behind fold of metaplica. Metaplica (MP) with a poorly delimited mesad flange (MF) basally, distally folded back on anterior side and covering distal part of proplica, but not forming a spinelike process.
GONOPOD TELOPODITE (Fig. 57). Arculus 90°. Torsotope (TT) relatively extended, a long post-torsal spine (PTS) making a full turn around post-torsal narrowing, post-torsal narrowing hence not visible. Solenomere (SLM) separating from telomere immediately after post-torsal narrowing, very long, much longer than telomere, slender, simple; a long, very thin spine (BSS1) branching off from base of solenomere, a shorter but stouter spine (BSS2) branches off SLM a little after. A tiny spinelike side branch (slb) in the distal part of SLM, but still quite far from solenomere tip (Fig. 57H). Telomere (TM) much longer than broad, extremely complicated, overall apparently consisting of a broad, twisted lamella with various folds and secondary lamellae, including a possible homologue of process “d” in S. voiensis.
Distribution and habitat
Known only from the type locality in the North Pare Mts.
Remarks
In the key to Syndesmogenus species by Kraus, the new species doesn’t really fit in. The profile of the distal part of the gonopod coxa (cucullus) to some extent resembles that of S. kivuensis Kraus, 1960, but in the latter species the mesal cucullar process is subrectangular (vs triangular in S. estelleae sp. nov.), and the limbus has no denticles or lobes (vs small denticles in S. estelleae sp. nov.)
description: Published as part of Enghoff, Henrik, 2022, Mountains of millipedes. The family Odontopygidae in the Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania (Diplopoda, Spirostreptida), pp. 1-136 in European Journal of Taxonomy 803 on pages 91-95, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2022.803.1691, http://zenodo.org/record/6359066