Iulidesmus garciae Romero-Rincon & Golovatch 2024, new species
Creators: name: Romero-Rincon, Juan
name: Golovatch, Sergei I.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Diplopoda
Polydesmida
Paradoxosomatidae
Iulidesmus
Iulidesmus garciae

description: Iulidesmus garciae new species
Figs 1–3, 14
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: DEE17DB6-CC17-488E-9DE0-4182267AA9F7
Diagnosis. Based on the gonopodal conformation, the new species seems to be particularly similar to both I. junki (Golovatch and Hoffman, in Golovatch et al. 2003), from near Iquitos, Amazonia of Peru (Golovatch et al. 2003), and, to a lesser degree, I. mediatus (Silvestri, 1897), from Valle del Santiago, Ecuador (Silvestri 1897). Yet it differs from the former species by the postfemoral sulcus (su2) poorly defined, the apical lobe (lo) more strongly flattened, and a transverse ridge on the coxite (cx) absent. In addition, the new species differs in structure of adenostyles on male legs and in the color pattern, lacking red-brown to pinkish markings on metaterga. On the other hand, I. garciae sp. n. differs from I. mediatus by the presence of a lo, the apical process on the lamina medialis (lm) with a denticle at the base, a distofemoral sulcus (su1) is traceable, the cannula (ca) is strongly inflated and flattened distally (Silvestri 1897); furthermore, a dark red coloration is lacking, the dorsum being entirely light reddish, and the legs reddish.
Name. The new species is dedicated to Martha García Sarmiento, curator at the Museo de Historia Natural and professor of the Department of Biology at the Universidad Pedagógica Nacional.
Material examined.
Holotype. COLOMBIA ● ♂; Amazonas, Parque Nacional Natural Amacayacú, road to San Martín (3°41′N, 70°15′W), 80–200 m asl; 13–14 June 1992; R. Torres-Nuñez leg.; (MHN-UPN-MD-220).
Description. Length of holotype 24.7 mm, width of midbody metazona, 2.5 mm. Coloration in alcohol deep orange 51 with a horologiform axial line pale yellow 89, extending from collum down to covering entire epiproct. Antennae vivid orange 48, only tip of antenna entirely pallid; legs strong orange 50.
Body strongylosomoid, not too moniliform, with poorly developed paraterga (Fig. 1). Postcollar constriction faint; in width, collum <head = ring 2 <3 = 4 <5–16; on rings 17–20, trunk gradually and gently tapering towards telson. Antennae very long, claviform, in situ extending past ring 4 dorsally (Figs 1B, 1D); in length, antennomeres 2=4>3=6>5>7>1.
Paraterga set low (at about half midbody height), considerably larger on pore-bearing rings than on poreless ones, never projecting caudally past rear tergal margin, flattened and decreasing in size from ring 16 towards telson. Transverse mid-dorsal sulci present on rings 4–18, faint, thin lines not reaching the bases of paraterga. Ozopores lateral, invisible from above, located inside round to ovoid grooves lying on poriferous paraterga at ca 1/5 metazonital length off caudal edge. Tegument generally smooth, 2+2 long setae (each ca 0.25 mm long) or their insertion points anteriorly in one transverse row on each postcollar metatergum (Fig. 1D–F).
Sterna largely with deep cross-impressions, moderately setose, sternal cones traceable between coxae 4–7 (male), cones slightly increasing in size, and setae in length, towards telson (Figs 1A–C, 3A). Legs long (ca 1.4 times longer than midbody height), tarsi densely setose, but tarsal brushes absent; coxae and prefemora each with a conspicuous long seta ventro-apically. Femora 4–7 each with an adenostyle near proximal 1/3 ventrally, each different in size and with a bunch of setae (more conspicuous in leg 7) (Fig. 3B–E), other femora without modifications (Fig. 3F). In length, femur = tarsus> tibia> postfemur> prefemur.
Gonopod (Fig. 2) much as in I. junki and I. mediatus, although coxite (cx) without a ventral subtransverse ridge at midway, but with a slight and heavily setose swelling distoventrally; cannula (ca) conspicuously flattened and enlarged medially. Prefemorite (pfe) much shorter than femorite (fe), densely setose as usual; fe slightly less robust, demarcated clearly both basally from pfe and distally by a distofemoral sulcus (su1). Solenophore (sph) very large and long, apical lobe (lo) modest, flattened and directed dorsally, clearly demarcated by a postfemoral sulcus (su2). Lamina medialis (lm) simple, much smaller compared to lamina lateralis (ll), the latter large and more slender, with a subapical and an apical process as in I. junki.
Remarks. Based on gonopodal structure, I. junki was related with certainty to none of its congeners (Golovatch et al. 2003), yet the similarity in gonopodal conformation to I. mediatus is very evident. The new species and I. junki, both fall into Jeekel’s (1963) group V, subgroup 1b that contains I. balzanii (Silvestri, 1895), from the Yungas region in Bolivia (Silvestri 1895), and I. sphinx (Verhoeff, 1941), from Ecuador (Verhoeff 1941); as outlined by Jekeel (1963), all share a small, uncate, somewhat recurved lappet at the end of the tibiotarsus (= solenophore). Iulidesmus garciae n. sp. joins this subgroup, yet differing from I. balzanii by the shape of the ll processes and the coloration being dark red to red; from I. sphinx by the bifurcated lm, ll without well-defined uncus, ca not inflated, and pfe very short.
Distribution. Only known from the type locality (Fig. 14).
description: Published as part of Romero-Rincon, Juan & Golovatch, Sergei I., 2024, The millipede genus Iulidesmus Silvestri, 1895 in Colombia (Polydesmida, Paradoxosomatidae, Catharosomatini), pp. 56-76 in Zootaxa 5415 (1) on pages 58-60, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5415.1.2, http://zenodo.org/record/10692554