Odontopygidae Attems 1909
Creators: name: Enghoff, Henrik
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Diplopoda
Spirostreptida
Odontopygidae

description: Family Odontopygidae Attems, 1909
Diagnosis
A family of Spirostreptida with the unique combination of the following characters: gnathochilarium without a promentum; first pair of male legs with prefemoral lobes on anterior side; one pair of gonopods (modified 8 th legs); gonopod coxa forming a more or less closed tube accommodating basis of telopodite (basomere); free (distal) part of telopodite projecting mesad; sternum of fully reduced 9 th male legs (sternum 9) prominent; anal valves usually with a dorsal, sometimes also a ventral, spinelike process.
Internal classification
The suprageneric classification of Odontopygidae was treated in detail by Kraus (1966), and again by Hoffman (1991), following the realization (Hoffman 1991) that the genus name Odontopyge Brandt, 1841, had been mis-applied by virtually all previous authors.
The classification of Hoffman (1991) is as follows (alphabetical sequence):
Subfamily Archepyginae Manfredi, 1939
Tribe Archepygini Manfredi, 1939
Tribe Ctenoiulini Hoffman, 1980
Tribe Prionopetalini Hoffman, 1991
Subfamily Lissopyginae Attems, 1909
Subfamily Odontopyginae Attems, 1909
Subfamily Peridontopyginae Attems, 1914
The monotypic (only one specimen known), highly dubious family Atopogestidae Hoffman, 1980 was retained by Hoffman (1991), as a second family in the superfamily Odontopygoidea. However, Atopogestus graueri (Attems, 1927), and hence Atopogestidae, most likely is based on a teratological specimen (Mauriès 1997) and for that reason was not included in the classification by Enghoff et al. (2015).
Key to subfamilies and tribes of Odontopygidae Attems, 1909
1. Gonopod telopodite without a flexible zone and without torsion, see, e.g., Kraus (1966: fig. 140). Gonopod sternum inconspicuous. Ozopores starting on body ring 6.. Odontopyginae Attems, 1909
– Telopodite with a flexible zone shortly after its exit from the coxal cavity, mostly with a torsion (‘torsotope’) at this point, see, e.g., Fig. 16A. Ozopores starting on ring 5 or 6 ............................... 2
2. Telopodite with a demarcation between a “prefemoral” part and a usually narrower ‘femoral’ part (post-torsal narrowing, see, e.g., Figs 8A, 55A); torsotope always present. Gonopod sternum inconspicuous. Ozopores starting on ring 6, except in the genus Pleonoporus Attems, 1938 ............................................................................................(Archepyginae Manfredi, 1939)...4
– Telopodite without distinction between a “prefemoral” and a usually narrower “prefemoral” zone (no post-torsal narrowing); with or without torsotope....................................................................... 3
3. No torsotope. Gonopod sternum inconspicuous. Ozopores starting on body ring 5. Margin of limbus straight ............................................................................................... Peridontopygini Attems, 1914
– Torsotope present. Gonopod sternum well-developed (at least in Xystopyge, see, e.g., Fig. 62A, VandenSpiegel & Pierrard (2004: figs 1, 4), condition in Lissopyge Attems, 1909 dubious). Ozopores starting on body ring 6. Limbus divided into variously shaped lobes ..... Lissopyginae Attems, 1909
4. Solenomere blunt, short and compact, more or less expanded, never longer than telomere and basally fused with it, see, e.g., Demange & Mauries (1975: fig. 162), Kraus (1960: fig. 169) ....................... .......................................................... Ctenoiulini Hoffman, 1980 and Archepygini Manfredi, 1939
– Solenomere always ending with a point, even when it may be expanded elsewhere, usually long and slender (1 exception in the genus Patinatiopsis Kraus, 1960) .......... Prionopetalini Hoffman, 1991
The distinction between Ctenoiulini + Archepygini on the one side and the Prionopetalini on the other side roughly reflects couplet 5 in the key to genera of Archepyginae (= Odontopyginae sensu Kraus 1966) of Kraus (1966: 90), see also Hoffman (1980: 99). The distinction between Ctenoiulini and Archepygini is unclear, see Hoffman (1991: 71).
description: Published as part of Enghoff, Henrik, 2022, Mountains of millipedes. The family Odontopygidae in the Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania (Diplopoda, Spirostreptida), pp. 1-136 in European Journal of Taxonomy 803 on pages 12-14, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2022.803.1691, http://zenodo.org/record/6359066