Brachydesmus (Lophobrachydesmus) furcatus Lohmander 1936
Creators: name: Golovatch, Sergei
name: Evsyukov, Aleksandr
name: Reip, Hans
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2016
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Diplopoda
Polydesmida
Polydesmidae
Brachydesmus
Brachydesmus furcatus

description: Brachydesmus (Lophobrachydesmus) furcatus Lohmander, 1936
Fig. 10, Map 3
Brachydesmus (Lophobrachydesmus) furcatus Lohmander, 1936: 16 (D).
Brachydesmus (Lophobrachydesmus) furcatus— Attems, 1940: 134 (D); Lang, 1959: 1795 (R). Brachydesmus furcatus furcatus— Strasser, 1970: 204 (D); Lokšina and Golovatch, 1979: 384 (M); Talikadze, 1984: 143 (R). Brachydesmus (Lophobrachydesmus) furcatus exiguus Strasser, 1970: 204 (D), syn. n.
Brachydesmus furcatus exiguus— Lokšina and Golovatch, 1979: 384 (M); Talikadze, 1984: 143 (R). Brachydesmus furcatus— Chumachenko, 2012: 452 (R);
Material examined. 1 male, 5 juv. (ZMUM), RUSSIA, Krasnodar Prov., Gelendjik, Mikhailovskii Pass, Fagus forest, 26.V.1956; 3 females (ZMUM), same locality and Pass, Fagus forest, 5.VII.1956; 1 female, 3 juv. (ZMUM), same locality, Fagus forest, under bark, 26.V.1956; 1 female, 2 juv. (ZMUM), Gelendjik, forest, 28.IV.1955; 1 female (ZMUM), Krasnodar Prov., Tuapse Distr., Georgievskoe Forestry, Castanea forest, 7.V.1954; 1 female (ZMUM), same locality, SSW slope, Quercus forest, 18.V.1954; 3 males, 6 juv. (ZMUM), Krasnodar Prov., Tuapse Distr., Cherepsinskoye Forestry, Quersus forest, S slope, 15.V.1954, all leg. M. Ghilarov, all det. H. Lohmander, det. C. Dziadosz, 1968; 1 female (ZMUM), Sochi, Khosta, Buxus forest, 29.VI.1956, leg. M. Ghilarov; 2 females (ZMUM), same locality, Caucasian Nature Reserve, Taxus and Buxus forest, 15.V.1985, leg. S. Golovatch; 1 male, 1 female (ZMUM), same locality, Taxus and Buxus forest, III.2006, leg. Yu. Chumachenko; 1 female (ZMUM), Adygea, Guzeripl, Caucasian Nature Reserve, Pasture Abago S of Guzeripl, 1700 – 1850 m a.s.l., Abies and Fagus forest, Rhododendron thicket, litter, 24 – 26.V.1985, leg. S. Golovatch; 1 male, 2 females (AE), Adygea, near Guzeripl, Abies forest, 19.VI.2011, leg. D. Khisametdinova and E. Bortnikov; 1 female (ZMUM), Krasnodar Prov., Sochi, Krasnaya Polyana, 6 – 8.VI.1976; 1 female (ZMUM), same locality, 1900 m a.s.l., under stones, 29.VI.1956; 1 female (ZMUM), same locality, 600 m a.s.l., Castanea forest, litter, 1.VI.1956, all leg. M. Ghilarov; 1 female (ZMUM), Krasnodar Prov., Sochi, Dagomys, 250 m a.s.l., Quercus, Corylus, Fagus etc. scrub, litter, logs, 18.V.1983; 2 females (ZMUM), Krasnodar Prov., Sochi, Caucasian Nature Reserve, Pslukh ca 20 km E of Krasnaya Polyana, Mt Aishkho-2, S slope, 1600 m a.s.l., Abies, Fagus, Betula etc. forest, 12.VIII.1986; 1 male, 2 females (ZMUM), same locality, Mt Kogot, Abies and Fagus forest up to timberline, 1650 – 1850 m a.s.l., litter, under bark and stones, 18–20.V.1985; 1 female (ZMUM), Krasnodar Prov., Caucasian Nature Reserve, Krasnaya Polyana, 6 – 8.VI.1978, all leg. S. Golovatch; 2 females, 39 juv. (ZMUM), Krasnodar Prov., Sochi, Mt Bolshoy Akhun, Cave Akhunskaya, 19.VII.2015, leg. I. Turbanov; 9 juv. (ZMUM), Krasnodar Prov., Kabardinka, scrub, 2.VI.1956, leg. M. Ghilarov; 9 juv. (ZMUM), Krasnodar Prov., Severskaya Distr., 2 – 10 km S of Ubinskaya, 300 – 450 m a.s.l., Quercus, Fagus, Carpinus etc. forest, litter and under bark, 3 – 4.VII.1986; 2 females, 22 juv. (ZMUM), same locality, Mt Derbiy ca 15 km SW of Ubinskaya, 800 – 850 m a.s.l., Quercus, Fagus, Fraxinus etc. forest, litter and under bark, 2.VII.1986, all leg. S. Golovatch; 6 juv. (ZMUM), same locality, Ubinskoye Forestry,
Quercus forest, 16.VI.1953, leg. M. Ghilarov; 2 males, 3 females (ZMUM), Krasnodar Prov., Goryachiy Klyuch, Cave Fanagoriyskaya, ca 12 km SW of Fanagoriyskoye, 30.X.1981; 1 male, 3 females, 3 juv. (ZMUM), same locality, Fagus, Acer, Picea etc. forest, litter and under logs, 19.V.1983, all leg. S. Golovatch; 1 female (ZMUM), Krasnodar Prov., Goryachiy Klyuch, without data; 1 male (ZMUM), same locality, Kotkh Mt. Range, Quercus forest, soil, 18.V.1956; 11 juv. (ZMUM), same locality, Pshaf Mt. Range, forest on limestone, 20.V.1956; 3 females (ZMUM), Pshaf Mt. Range, near “Belaya Latka”, Quercus forest, 17.VI.1956; 3 females, 8 juv. (ZMUM), Pshaf Mt. Range, near “Belaya Latka”, S slope, Quercus forest, 18.VI.1956; 8 females, 18 juv. (ZMUM), same locality, Kotkh Mt. Range, summit, S slope, Quercus forest, 20.VI.1956; 2 females, 2 juv. (ZMUM), Kotkh Mt. Range, summit, S slope, Quercus forest, 21.VI.1956; 1 male, 1 female (ZMUM), Kotkh Mt. Range, Quercus forest, 18.VI.1956; 1 female (ZMUM), same locality, Canyon Bukovoe, 5.IV.1954; 7 juv. (ZMUM), Bolnichi, Mt Petushok, NE slope, Carpinus forest, 4.VIII.1955; 1 juv. (ZMUM), Krasnodar Prov., Mt Ostraya, 1.VIII.1954; 1 female (ZMUM), same locality, 3.VIII.1954; 1 juv. (ZMUM), Kuban, Azovskaya, under Tkachovskoye, Quercus forest belt, 24.VII.1955, all leg. M. Ghilarov, all det. H. Lohmander, det. C. Dziadosz, 1968.
2 males, 3 females (ZMUM), ABKHAZIA, Myussera Nature Reserve, 20 – 130 m a.s.l., Castanea, Alnus etc. forest, 8 – 10.IV.1983, leg. S. Golovatch; 1 male (SMNG 14685), Transcaucasus, Riza-See (= Lake Ritsa), 20.VI.1984, leg. W. Dunger.
Descriptive notes. Length ca 8.5 – 12 mm, width of midbody metazonae 0.8 – 1.3 mm (male, female), metazonite to prozonite width ratio <1.4 (Fig. 10A – 10D). Live coloration usually uniformly pallid to light brown.
All characters as in B. assimilis (Fig. 10), except as follows. Paraterga poorly-developed, their fore margins and anterolateral corner largely broadly and regularly rounded, not angular; caudolateral corner mostly obtuseangled, pointed or nearly pointed and drawn behind rear tergal margin only in segments 16 – 18 (Fig. 10A – 10D). Tergal setae mostly very short and subbacilliform. Metatergal sculpture especially superficial. Male prefemora not bulging laterad. Gonopod (Fig. 10E – 10G) bipartite, strongly falcate, much as in B. pigmentatus, but exomere (ex) with a conspicuous densely pilose strip, endomere (en) simple and bare, while tooth (t) at base of femorite very prominent and strongly rounded.
Remarks. The differences of B. furcatus exiguus Strasser (1970), described from a cave near Sochi, such as a slightly smaller and narrower body, a somewhat shorter endomere, a smaller pilose strip on the exomere and a less prominent tooth at the base of the gonofemorite (Fig. 10 G) as compared to the sympatric nominate subspecies, seem to represent only individual variations. Hence we do not hesitate to formally synonymize B. furcatus exiguus under B. furcatus, syn. n. Moreover, the name B. f. exiguus Strasser, 1970 has long been jeopardized by the much older homonym, B. exiguus Brölemann, 1894, from Italy (Brölemann 1894).
Given the striking similarities observed in gonopod structure between B. (s. str.) pigmentatus and B. (Lophobrachydesmus) furcatus, the status of the latter subgenus is to be questioned.
description: Published as part of Golovatch, Sergei, Evsyukov, Aleksandr & Reip, Hans, 2016, The millipede family Polydesmidae in the Caucasus (Diplopoda: Polydesmida), pp. 1-51 in Zootaxa 4085 (1) on pages 19-21, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4085.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/1052381