Otostigmus (Parotostigmus) occidentalis Meinert 1886
Creators: name: Chagas-Jr, Amazonas
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2016
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Chilopoda
Scolopendromorpha
Scolopendridae
Otostigmus
Otostigmus occidentalis

description: Otostigmus (Parotostigmus) occidentalis Meinert, 1886
(Figures 18–19)
Otostigma occidentale Meinert, 1886: 185;
Otostigmus occidentalis Pocock, 1910: 25; Attems, 1930: 166 (Listed by Attems (ibid) as inadequately described); Otostigmus (Parotostigmus) occidentalis Bücherl, 1974: 115.
Type material examined. Holotype MCZ IZ no.1137 (14475), Haiti, Grand Anse (Figs 18–19).
Diagnosis. Tergites 13–21 with tubercles; tergites 15–20 more densely tuberculate laterally. Sternites 5–19 with short anterior incomplete paramedian sutures; sternite 3–17 with a very shallow rounded depression at center. Legs 10–19 with one tarsal spur.
Redescription. Length: 45 mm from the anterior margin of the cephalic plate to the posterior margin of tergite 21. Antennae with 17 articles on the right (not damaged) and 21 on the left (both 21 articles), two basal articles glabrous. Cephalic plate smooth, without sutures and depressions. Coxosternal tooth plates wider than long, with 4+3 teeth, with a strong seta on each plate. Coxosternite with a transverse suture at the base of the tooth-plates, this suture is bifurcate laterally. Margin of the forcipular trochanteroprefemoral process with two short denticles and the tip pointed.
Tergites 5–20 with complete paramedian sutures; tergites 8 (9)–21 marginate; Tergites 1–12 smooth, with tubercles from tergites 13–21 the number increasing; on posterior tergites which are densely tuberculate; tergites 15–20 more densely tuberculate laterally. Tergite 21 with a slightly convex posterior margin and a shallow median longitudinal depression.
Sternites 5–19 with short anterior incomplete paramedian sutures; sternite 3–17 with a very shallow rounded depression at center. Sternite 21 with posterior margin slightly concave (truncated).
Coxopleuron without spines. Pore-field covers almost entire coxopleuron; posterior end of the coxopleuron poreless. Posterior margin of coxopleuron forming very short process, which is rounded apically. Legs 1 with one prefemoral and one tibial spur; legs 1–9 with two tarsal spurs, 10–19 with one, and 20 and 21 without spurs.
Remarks. Pocock (1893) regarded O. occidentalis as close to O. spiculifer Pocock, 1893, but mentioned that these two species were different in the number of antennal articles (21 in O. occidentalis and 17 in O. spiculifer), and by the dorsal integument (hirsute in O. occidentalis and posteriorly granulated in O. spiculifer). Meinert (1886) described 21 antennal articles for O. occidentalis, but in fact the right antenna has 17. The dorsal integument of O.
occidentalis was poorly described by Meinert (1886), however, tergites 1–12 are smooth and the number of tubercles increases from tergites 13–21, posterior tergites being densely tuberculate. The tergites in O. spiculifer are distinctly tuberculate in the posterior half of the body (Pocock, 1893) as in O. occidentalis. O. spiculifer is probably a synonym of O. occidentalis. However, further details of the type of O. spiculifer are necessary to confirm this assessment.
description: Published as part of Chagas-Jr, Amazonas, 2016, A systematic appraisal of the types of ten species of Otostigmus (Parotostigmus) (Scolopendromorpha, Scolopendridae, Otostigminae), pp. 36-58 in Zootaxa 4147 (1) on pages 45-46, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4147.1.2, http://zenodo.org/record/262564