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

description: Lissodesmus latus sp. nov.
Figures 6A, 9, 46, 69 lat, 70lat, 71lat, 75 (map)
Lissodesmus sp. NW1.— Mesibov, 1993: 31.— Mesibov, 1996:
18.— Mesibov, 1998: 155.— Bonham et al., 2002: 240.
Material examined. Holotype. Male, Australia, Tasmania. Wombat Hill, W of Waratah, CQ703065 (41°28'56''S 145°26'47''E), 670 m, 24.ix.1990, R. Mesibov, QVM 23:17495.
Paratypes. 2 males, Wombat Hill, W of Waratah, CQ702064 (41°29'00''S 145°26'42''E), 680 m, 19.ix.1990, R. Mesibov, AM KS91178 (ex QVM 23:17490); 2 males, same details, QVM 23:17490, 1 dissected; 2 males, same details but 22.ix.1990, QVM 23:17491; 2 males, details as for holotype but 23.ix.1990, QVM 23:17492; 2 males, Wombat Hill, W of Waratah, CQ704066 (41°28'53''S 145°26'51''E), 690 m, 28.ix.1990, R. Mesibov, QVM 23: 17496, 1 dissected; male and female in copula, same details, QVM 23:17497; 7 females, same details, QVM 23:17547; 2 males, same details but 29.ix.1990, QVM 23:17493; 2 males, same details but 30.ix.1990, QVM 23:17494; 9 males, Montagu Swamp, CQ265620 (40°58'28''S 144°56'16''E), 30 m, 22.vi.1991, R. Mesibov, QVM 23:17499, 1 dissected; 5 males, 2 females, Deep Creek Bay, CQ447787 (40°49'40''S 145°09'29''E), <10 m, 5.ix.2000, K. Bonham, QVM 23:41955, 2 males dissected.
Other material. 186 males, 116 females and 20 juveniles from 105 localities (see “ Lissodesmus supplement” for details).
Description. Male c. 20 mm long, H = 1.8 mm. In alcohol, well-coloured specimens of typical form (see Remarks) under low magnification with near-white body colour and wide, transverse, purple banding, interrupted medially, on posterior margin of prozonites. Antenna long (Fig. 69 lat). Paranota fairly wide, R = 1.5, sometimes with two prominent posterior marginal teeth (Fig. 70 lat), posterior corners not turned up (Fig. 9). Limbus elements simple, tapering to point (Fig. 6A). Legs robust, tarsus longer than femur, tibia with slight ventral distal swelling (Fig. 71 lat). Telopodite (Fig. 46) reaching leg 5 when retracted. Solenomere arising between one-quarter and one-third the telopodite height, directed posterodistally at c. 30° to telopodite axis, curving laterally, terminating with toothed subapical collar at about one-third the prefemoral process height. Tibiotarsus wider than solenomere and slightly longer, curving more sharply laterally, diverging from solenomere at a small angle, terminating in a thin, dentate edge sometimes turned anterodistally at level of solenomere tip. Femoral process arising slightly distal to solenomere origin, forked at about one-third its length, both branches blade-like, bluntly pointed; anterior branch closely pressed to prefemoral process at its base, terminating at level of solenomere tip; posterior branch typically as long as or slightly longer than anterior branch, curved anterodistally. Prefemoral process at its origin about two-thirds as wide as telopodite base, very slightly bent laterally, bending posteriorly at just over half its length, the mesal edge and expanded, mesolaterally flattened tip both crenulate or shortly toothed. Two small unci arising at just under half the prefemoral process height (just distal to solenomere tip), one central and one on mesal edge of process.
Distribution and habitat. In cool temperate rainforest, wet eucalypt forest and coastal scrub and blackwood/tea-tree forest over c. 13 000 km 2 in north-west Tasmania (Fig. 75), from the Hunter Group of islands to the Franklin River, from the west coast inland to the Leven River and the Cradle Mountain area, and from sea level to at least 950 m. L. latus has been found in caves at Gunns Plains, Loongana, Mt Cripps and the Wilson River. It co-occurs with L. perporosu s over most of its range and is typically less abundant than L. perporosus when the two are syntopic.
Etymology. Latin latus (“broad, wide”), for the wide and relatively flat paranota.
Remarks. Besides the inland form of L. latus, represented by the holotype, there is a distinctive coastal form with almost uniformly pale brown to chestnut-brown coloration and with stronger dorsal curvature of the paranota. Despite the striking difference in overall appearance of the two L. latus forms, the gonopods of coastal and inland forms in the far north-west are almost indistinguishable. The coastal form occurs close to the western and Bass Strait coasts and in the Hunter Group of islands. I have not yet found a site in the far north-west of Tasmania where the coastal and inland forms co-occur. Coastal L. latus closely resembles L. perporosus, but females and juveniles of the two species can be separated by inspection of the ozopores (i.e., the pore formula in L. latus is normal).
Inland L. latus vary in the height of the paranotal margins relative to the body axis, in the sharpness of notches on the lateral edge of the paranota, and in the clear presence or nearabsence of a pair of rounded teeth on the posterior margin of each paranotum. On the gonopod telopodite, the anterior branch of the femoral process varies from nearly straight to arc-like (concave posteriorly), and the tip of the tibiotarsus can be straight or upturned. Furry specimens of L. latus have been found in the Mt Cripps area and at Lake Lea and the nearby Vale of Belvoir (Fig. 9).
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 117-118, DOI: 10.24199/j.mmv.2005.62.4, http://zenodo.org/record/8064747