Lissodesmus bashfordi Mesibov 2005, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Mesibov, Robert
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2005
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Diplopoda
Polydesmida
Dalodesmidae
Lissodesmus
Lissodesmus bashfordi

description: Lissodesmus bashfordi sp. nov.
Figures 17, 18, 69bas, 70bas, 71bas, 72 (map) Lissodesmus sp. SE1.— Mesibov, 1996: 18.
Material examined. Holotype. Male, Australia, Tasmania. Huon River (Manuka Road), DN764287 (43°05'38”S 146°42’36”E), 140 m, 15.v.1997, R. Mesibov, QVM 23:45945 (ex 23:40746).
Paratypes. Male, Dromedary Creek, EN098692 (42°43'46''S 147°07'11''E), 420 m, 19.iii.1992, R. Mesibov, QVM 23:16178; female, same details, QVM 23:16179; male, Bracken Ridge, DN897308 (43°04'’31''S 146°52'’25''E), 360 m, 17.i.1995, R. Bashford, QVM 23:40745; male, Huon River (Manuka Road), DN764287 (43°05'38''S 146°42'36''E), 140 m, 15.v.1997, R. Mesibov, QVM 23:40746; 7 males, Huon River (Edwards Road), DN792288 (43°05'35''S 146°44'40''E), 100 m, 9.i.2001, R. Mesibov, QVM 23:45946, 2 dissected, in 95% ethanol; male, Huon River (Manuka Road), DN765285 (43°05'45''S 146°42'40''E), 110 m, 3.ii.2001, R. Mesibov, QVM 23:45947, in 95% ethanol; male, Judds Creek, DN976476 (42°55'24''S 146°58'15''E), 390 m, 29.xi.2003, R. Mesibov & K. Bonham, AM KS91167; female, same details, QVM 23:25601; male, same details but DN970463 (42°56'10''S 146°57'49''E), 220 m, QVM 23:25603; male, Peak Rivulet, DN 914020 (43°19'59''S 146°53'44''E), 140 m, 12.ix.2005, W. & L. Clarkson, QVM 23:46135.
Description. Male c. 15 mm long, H = 1.4 mm. In alcohol, well-coloured specimens under low magnification with very pale brown body colour and red-brown speckling transversely on metatergites, concentrated near posterior margins. Antenna relatively short (Fig. 69 bas). Paranota fairly wide, R = 1.5 (Fig. 70 bas); posterior corners not turned up. Legs moderately robust, tarsus about as long as femur, tibia with slight ventral distal swelling (Fig. 71 bas). Telopodite (Figs 17, 18) reaching leg 5 when retracted. Solenomere arising at one-third the telopodite height, directed posterodistally at about 45° to telopodite axis, curving smoothly laterally and distally, the tip bending abruptly mesally and armed subapically with a small, bluntly pointed projection, terminating at about one-third the prefemoral process height. Tibiotarsus more or less cylindrical, narrower than solenomere, more or less parallel to solenomere but about half its length, curving slightly laterally. Femoral process arising far distal to solenomere origin at half to two-thirds the telopodite length, slightly flattened near base and curving outwards, distally expanding to a large, leaf-shaped structure bent towards prefemoral process at nearly a right angle and reaching as far distally as that process. Prefemoral process somewhat more than two-thirds the width of telopodite base, bending sharply posteriorly about midway and curving slightly mesally, terminating in large, flattened, hand-shaped tip with long lateral “thumb” and several short, marginal teeth as “fingers”. Uncus small, finger-like, arising just distal to solenomere tip close to mesal edge of prefemoral process.
Figures 21, 22, 69cat, 70cat, 71cat, 78 (map)
Distribution and habitat. An uncommon species known only from wet eucalypt forest over c. 500 km 2 in south-east Tasmania (Fig. 72), from 100 to 420 m.
Etymology. Named for Richard Bashford, who has collected this and many other invertebrate species in his long and productive career in forest entomology in Tasmania.
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 page 111, DOI: 10.24199/j.mmv.2005.62.4, http://zenodo.org/record/8064747