Atalopharetra johnsi Mesibov, 2005, n. sp.
Creators: name: Mesibov, Robert
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2005
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Diplopoda
Polydesmida
Dalodesmidae
Atalopharetra
Atalopharetra johnsi

description: Atalopharetra johnsi n. sp.
Figs. 1 A(?), 6, 7; map Fig. 16
Holotype: Male, Tarraleah, Tasmania, DP472167 (42°17’55”S 146°21’39”E), 720 m, pitfall emptied 19.v.1992, R. Brereton, QVM 23:15089.
Paratypes: 1 female, Tarraleah, approx. DP530160 (42°18’S 146°25’E), v.1978, V.V. Hickman, cyphopods everted, QVM 23:15114; 1 female, Tarraleah, DP472200 (42°16’08”S 146°21’40”E), 790 m, pitfall emptied 17.xii.1991, R. Brereton, QVM 23:15113; 1 female, Tarraleah, DP473162 (42°18’11”S 146°21’43”E), 710 m, 15.iv.1992, R. Mesibov, QVM 23:15107; 1 male, Tarraleah, DP474161 (42°18’14”S 146°21’47”E), 690 m, pitfall emptied 15.iv.1992, R. Brereton, QVM 23:15099; 2 males, Tarraleah, DP474162 (42°18’11”S 146°21’47”E), 700 m, 15.iv.1992, R. Mesibov, QVM 23:15101; 2 females, same details, QVM 23:15109; 1 male, Tarraleah, DP474166 (42°17’58”S 146°21’48”E), 710 m, pitfall emptied 15.iv.1992, R. Brereton, QVM 23:15090; 1 male, Tarraleah, DP473162 (42°18’11”S 146°21’43”E), 710 m, 17.iv.1992, R. Mesibov, QVM 23:15087; 2 females, same details, QVM 23:15105; 1 male, same details but DP473165 (42°18’01”S 146°21’43”E), 710 m, 22.iv.1992, QVM 23:15097; 1 stadium VII male, same details, QVM 23:15108; 1 stadium VII male, same details but DP471196 (42°16’21”S 146°21’35”E), 760 m, 2.v.1992, QVM 23:15106; 2 males, same details but DP473197 (42°16’17”S 146°21’44”E), 780 m, 5.v.1992, AM KS91433 (formerly QVM 23:15095); 2 stadium VII males, 2 females, same details, QVM 23:15110; 1 male, same details but DP475197 (42°16’17”S 146°21’53”E), 750 m, 8.v.1992, QVM 23:15098; 1 male, same details but DP477197 (42°16’17”S 146°22’02”E), 740 m, QVM 23:15100; 1 female, 1 stadium VII female, same details, QVM 23:15111; 1 stadium VII female, same details but DP475197 (42°16’17”S 146°21’53”E), 750 m, 9.v.1992, QVM 23:15112; 2 males, Tarraleah, DP471194 (42°16’27”S 146°21’35”E), 750 m, pitfall emptied 19.v.1992, R. Brereton, QVM 23:15093; 1 male, same details but pitfall emptied 20.x.1992, QVM 23:15091; 1 male, same details but DP472200 (42°16’08”S 146°21’40”E), 790 m, QVM 23:15088; 1 male, same details but 780 m, QVM 23:15092; 2 males, same details but DP473197 (42°16’17”S 146°21’44”E), 770 m, QVM 23:15094; 1 male, same details but DP474166 (42°17’58”S 146°21’48”E), 710 m, QVM 23:15096.
Other material examined: 28 males, 1 female; see Appendix for details.
Diagnosis: Well­pigmented; paranota reduced to slight lateral swellings; large, laminar, hood­like distal process divided into two slightly overlapping portions; limbus elements tab­like. Distinguished from A. bashfordi by recumbent solenomere and by long, bluntly rounded extension of posterodistal corner of hood.
Description: Male ca. 22 mm long; segment 12 height ca. 1.9 mm, width ca. 2.0 mm. Body colour in alcohol pale to red­brown with darker red­brown colouration on metazonites, darkening posteriorly, and on distal podomeres. Cuticle well­calcified, brittle. Live animal with strongly smelling defensive secretion, the odour persisting for many years in alcoholic samples. Head very slightly convex in front, sparsely covered with long setae except at top of vertex; antennae (Fig. 3 A) long, slender, separated by about twice a socket diameter, sockets well impressed ventrally and laterally; antennomere 6 the widest, antennomere lengths decreasing in order 2, (3,6), (4,5). Collum slightly narrower than head, semicircular in dorsal view, with a few long setae near anterior margin. Segment 2 slightly wider than collum, segments 3–4 increasingly but only slightly wider than 2, segments 5– 18 more or less equal in width. Segments 2–18 smooth dorsally with a few long setae near anterior margin. Paranota on all segments greatly reduced, on posterior segments to slight lateral swellings (Fig. 1 A), marked laterally by thin cuticular ridge bordering a narrow, upwardly and shallowly concave groove, level in lateral view; segment 2 paranotal margin lower than collum corner and segment 3 margin, margins on segments 3, 4 and 5 progressively higher, margins on segments 5–17 at about the same level, paranotum indistinct or missing on segment 18. Limbus (as for A. bashfordi n. sp., Figs. 2 A, 5B) composed of tablike elements with rounded, finely toothed tips. Ozopore opening dorsally near posterior corner of paranotum. Preanal ring sparsely setose; epiproct with truncated tip, extending well past anal valves; hypoproct trapezoidal. Spiracles (as for A. bashfordi n. sp., Fig. 5 A) large with interior lining protruding, on diplosegments with anterior spiracle above anterior leg and posterior spiracle about midway between anterior and posterior legs. Sternites (as for A. bashfordi n. sp., Fig. 2 A) longer than wide, cross­impressions well­developed. Anterior legs swollen with dorsally convex prefemur (Fig. 3 E); tarsus and femur somewhat longer than prefemur, much longer than postfemur and tibia; sphaerotrichomes (as for A. bashfordi n. sp., Fig. 4 A) on tibia and tarsus only, shafts gently tapered; dense “brush” setae (as for A. bashfordi n. sp., Fig. 4 B) on prefemur, femur and postfemur, with slightly expanded tips. Leg 2 coxa with large gonopore with raised rim on slight ventromedial swelling. Leg 7 bases well­separated to accommodate retracted gonopods, leg 6 bases close together. Gonopod aperture ovoid, about half the width of segment 7 prozonite, the posterolateral portions of the rim extended. Gonopod coxae tapering distally, lightly joined mediodistally, with large, rounded apical extension on medial surface (Fig. 7), cannula prominent. Telopodites (Figs. 6, 7) short, broad, just reaching leg 7 bases when retracted. Telopodite somewhat flattened anteroposteriorly near base, expanding at about half the telopodite height into a thin­walled hood concave posteromedially, the hood divided distally into two more or less equal portions with finely fringed edges, the medial portion with a quadrate distal corner, the lateral portion slightly overlapping the medial portion and with a small number of long, straight teeth along anterodistal edge, the latter terminating anteriorly in a curved, tapering corner and the posterodistal corner extended as a long, bluntly pointed, blade­like process curving medially and basally. Solenomere narrowly cylindrical with expanded and flattened tip, arising on anteromedial surface of telopodite near base, extending distally and posteriorly before bending laterally to enter base of hood, the most distal portion bent anteriorly, recumbent on finely fringed portion of inner surface of hood and terminating at about two­thirds the telopodite height (orientation of solenomere tip in Fig. 6 is an artefact of preparation). Telopodite sparsely setose on posterolateral surface to about the level of hood base. Female larger than male and similar in overall appearance, but anterior legs of female not swollen; posterior rim of epigynum elevated medially as rounded, tooth­like projection; cyphopods not examined.
Distribution and habitat: In richly organic soil in wet eucalypt forest and cool temperate rainforest over at least 4000 km 2 in southern and southwestern Tasmania (Fig. 16), from Tarraleah and the Franklin River in the north to Precipitous Bluff in the south, and east to Pelverata Falls, and from near sea level to ca. 800 m. A. johnsi may extend further west if represented by some of the unidentified Atalopharetra in Fig. 15. A. johnsi has been found to co­occur with A. bashfordi at several localities and the range overlap of the two species is at least 2000 km 2 (Fig. 16). A. johnsi co­occurs with A. eberhardi in Quetzalcoatl Conduit (cave) near Precipitous Bluff.
Etymology: In honour of Peter Johns, formerly of the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand, who first studied specimens of this genus during a visit to Tasmania in the early 1970s.
Remarks: Two males from caves near Precipitous Bluff (QVM 23:12457, QVM 23:12621) and one from a cave near Ida Bay (QVM 23:12830) have the A. johnsi gonopod form but wider paranota than in epigean males of this species. In all three males the paranotal margins are more or less parallel to the body and the posterior corner of the paranotum extends as a small, rounded, slightly turned up tooth.
description: Published as part of Mesibov, Robert, 2005, (Diplopoda: Polydesmida: Dalodesmidae) from Tasmania, Australia, pp. 21-42 in Zootaxa 1034 on pages 23-27, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.169707