Otostigmus australianus Attems 1930
Creators: name: Lewis, John G. E.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2014
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Chilopoda
Scolopendromorpha
Scolopendridae
Otostigmus
Otostigmus australianus

description: Otostigmus australianus Attems, 1930
(Figs 5–11)
Otostigmus cfr. politus Kraepelin, 1916, 5. Australia.
Otostigmus (O.) politus australianus Attems, 1930, 151.
Otostigmus politus australianus: Verhoeff, 1942, 183 (in key).
Otostigmus (O) australianus: Lewis, 2003, 198, Figs 15 –22. (Lectotype designated).
Diagnosis Length up to 32 mm. Antennal articles 17, the basal 2–2.5 glabrous. Forcipular coxosternal tooth-plates with 3+3 main teeth. Tergites with complete paramedian sutures from 5, marginate from 17 (9, 15), without keels or spinules. Sternites with almost complete paramedian sutures. Sternite of ultimate leg-bearing segment quadratic in larger specimens. Coxopleural process typically with two apical spines only. No more than first five pairs of legs with two tarsal spurs. Ultimate leg prefemoral spines typically VL 3, VM 1, M 2, DM 1, CS 1.
Introductory remarks. Kraepelin’s (1916) description of Otostigmus cfr. politus was based on specimens from Herberton, Malanda and Belenden Ker in northern Queensland. Attems (1930) used Kraepelin’s data in proposing the subspecies O. politus australianus which Lewis (2003), having re-examined the type material, raised to full specific status as O. australianus Attems, 1930.
I have re-examined the data on the six specimens in the SMNH, one from Herberton and five from Belenden Ker. They are very similar and are described here. The single specimen from Malanda in the ZMB is considered separately.
Description of specimens from Herberton and Belenden Ker. Length 14–32 mm. Antennal articles (16) 17, the basal 2–2.5 glabrous. Each forcipular coxosternal tooth-plate with three main teeth, the outer separated from the inner two which are partially fused, the outer with a small subsidiary tooth. Trochanteroprefemoral process with a single medial denticle.
Tergites with paramedian sutures complete from 5, margination very variable commencing on 17 but from 9 and 15 in two 18 mm specimens, without keels or spines. Sternites with very fine almost complete paramedian sutures (Fig. 5) (not clearly shown in Lewis’s (2003) Fig. 16), in deep sulci with anterior median longitudinal and posterior round depressions. Sternite of ultimate leg-bearing segment quadratic, posterior margin concave (Fig. 6) with sides converging and posterior margin straight in two smaller 18 mm specimens (Fig. 7). Coxopleural process short with two apical spines (in one specimen a very small subapical) no lateral or dorsal spine.
Legs 1–2, 4 or 5 with two tarsal spurs, to 20 or 21 with one. Ultimate leg prefemoral spines VL 3(4), VM (0)1(2), M 2(1), DM 1, CS 1.
Description of specimen from Malanda. Length 35 mm. Antennal articles 15 [r]–16, the basal three glabrous (very sparsely setose). Forcipular coxosternal tooth-plates as in other specimens (Fig. 8). Trochanteroprefemoral process with two medial denticles.
Tergites with very fine paramedian sutures, complete from 8, margination commencing on 17 (weak), without keels or spines. Sternites without sutures. Anterior sternites with five weak depressions (Fig. 9), mid-body with four (Fig. 10). Sternite of ultimate leg-bearing segment quadrate, posterior margin with angular embayment (Fig. 11). Coxopleural process short with two apical spines only.
Legs 1–3 with two tarsal spurs, to 20 with one. Ultimate leg prefemoral spines VL 2–3, VM 1, M 2, DM 0–1, CS 1.
Remarks. Lewis’s (2003) included this specimen in his description of O. autralianus but it differs in two main respects, namely the basal three antennomeres glabrous and sternites without paramedian sutures. It may be a young O. ateles or a variation of O. australianus.
description: Published as part of Lewis, John G. E., 2014, A review of the orientalis group of the Otostigmus subgenus Otostigmus Porat, 1876 (Chilopoda: Scolopendromorpha: Scolopendridae), pp. 388-413 in Zootaxa 3889 (3) on page 392, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3889.3.3, http://zenodo.org/record/224919