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With an incident in Palo Duro Canyon, Texas, USA, Scolopendra heros Girard (Chilopoda: Scolopendromorpha: Scolopendridae) becomes the third centipede species known to prey on bats; S. gigantea Linnaeus and S. viridicornis Newport have been so documented in Venezuela and Brazil, respectively. The Texas predation was interrupted by the predator/prey pair’s falling around 15–20 m from the canyon wall and, perhaps also, by human presence where they landed. The centipede uncoiled and retreated to shelter under a nearby rock and, after initial immobilization, so did the bat.
A trimaculate male of the diplopod genus Apheloria Chamberlin (Polydesmida: Xystodesmidae/-inae: Apheloriini) from 1.3 km (0.8 mi) west of McKenney, Dinwiddie County (Co.), Virginia, is designated the Neotype of Julus virginiensis Drury 1770, thereby stabilizing the earliest name for a North American milliped and authenticating its prior assignment to this taxon. The existing concept of Apheloria is accepted in the absence of a revisionary treatment, and a modern description of A. v. virginiensis with gonopod drawings and color photos is provided. Drury’s original account and his letter to the Virginian who sent him the original specimens are quoted verbatim to eliminate future library searches. The specific name has been associated with at least three genera, and its confusing history is clarified by summarizing works in each. Authentic localities, mapped to the extent now possible, reveal a distribution south of the James River in piedmont and coastal Virginia that extends southwestward to the Blue Ridge foothills and at least as far south in North Carolina (NC) as Greensboro, the “Triangle” (Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill region), and Albemarle Sound in the east. Based on the holotypes, A. aspila and A. tigana, both by Chamberlin, are placed in synonymy under A. v. virginiensis (syns. nov.), and although its status is still under review, A. waccamana Chamberlin, whose type locality is Lake Waccamaw, Columbus Co., in southeastern NC, may be the correct name for today’s A. tigana. All samples so labeled must be reexamined for misidentifications of A. v. virginiensis.
Ptyoiulus Cook 1895, the dominant parajulid diplopod genus in the eastern United States (US), comprises two species – P. impressus (Say 1821), with a slanted, fl ared, circumferentially entire, and marginally serrate apical calyx on the anterior gonopod coxal process, and P. montanus (Cope 1869), n. comb., with a smooth, upright, cupulate calyx that is open caudad and coaxial with the process’ stem. The genus occupies a broad area between the Mississippi River and Atlantic Ocean extending from southern New England, Ontario, and Michigan to the Florida Panhandle and four small disjunct ones – from Montreal, Québec, to northern Vermont, along southwestern Lake Michigan in Wisconsin and Illinois; northeastern/eastcentral Arkansas, primarily in Crowley’s Ridge physiographic feature and beside the “bootheel” of Missouri; and a point locality in northeastern Louisiana just south of the Arkansas line. A male from Chester County (Co.), Pennsylvania, is designated as the neotype of Julus impressus, as is one from Durham Co., North Carolina, for J. montanus. As both species inhabit Montgomery Co., Virginia, the type locality of J. montanus, we exercise the right of first reviser, conserve the latter name, and assign it to the species with the smooth, cupulate, and coaxial calyx. We also exercise first reviser rights and assign Parajulus ectenes Bollman 1887 to this form, thereby relegating it to synonymy under Ptyoiulus montanus. Other new synonymies include Ptyoiulus georgiensis Chamberlin 1943 under P. impressus and P. coveanus Chamberlin 1943 under P. montanus. Both Ptyoiulus and P. impressus are projected for Delaware and Rhode Island and newly reported from Québec, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Maryland, Mississippi, South Carolina, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin, and the genus and species, respectively, are newly documented from Louisiana and Arkansas; P. montanus is newly cited from Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, and South Carolina. Ptyoiulus impressus occupies every state except perhaps Louisiana and is the only species in areas that were inundated during the Cretaceous and glaciated during the Pleistocene; by contrast, P. montanus inhabits a relatively narrow east/west transect through the center of the generic range. Their distribution patterns suggest an old species, montanus, being actively displaced by the younger and more successful impressus. The decurvature of the epiproct in uroblaniulinines appears to increase with age and developmental stage. A key is presented to parajulid familygroup taxa in the US and Canada east of the Rocky Mountains.
Parajulid milliped studies XI : Initial assessment of the tribe Gosiulini (Diplopoda: Julida)
(2016)
The parajulid milliped tribe Gosiulini (Diplopoda: Julida) comprises two genera – Gosiulus Chamberlin, with three projections on the posterior gonopod and two species in the southcentral/southwestern United States (US) [Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas], and monotypic Minutissimiulus Shelley, n. gen., with two projections, in Nuevo León, Mexico. Gosiulus conformatus Chamberlin occupies the plains/fl atlands of Texas, while its congener inhabits high elevations to the west in all four US states. Both are anticipated in Mexico (Coahuila, Chihuahua, and Sonora), and G. conformatus is expected in southeastern Colorado, eastern New Mexico, and the Oklahoma panhandle. The eastern boundary of G. conformatus and the genus/tribe conforms to the western border of the Piney Woods biome in eastern Texas. As shown by the posterior gonopod drawing in the original description, Parajulus timpius Chamberlin, previously considered of “uncertain generic position or validity,” is unquestionably the oldest name for the western species. The anteriormost posterior gonopod projection, absent from Minutissimiulus, is considered the “prefemoral process,” while the “solenomere” and a third branch arise from a common base.
Because of positional homology with “process ‘C’” in Nesoressini, the last projection is accorded this name, which may also apply to the “prefemoral process” in Aniulini. Minutissimiulus biramus Shelley, n. sp., is proposed along with the following new subjective synonymies: Apacheiulus Loomis under Gosiulus; Ziniulus aethes and Z. medicolens, both by Chamberlin, and Z. ambiguus and Z. nati, both by Loomis, under G. conformatus; and A. pinalensis and A. guadelupensis, both by Loomis, under G. timpius, new combination. Ziniulus navajo Chamberlin becomes an objective synonym of P. timpius because its holotype is designated neotype of the latter. Minutissimiulus biramus Shelley is the fi rst Mexican gosiuline and “mainland” Mexican parajulid not in the tribe Parajulini.
Pandirodesmus rutherfordi, n. sp., represented by 18 individuals including eight adult males, occurs in secondary forests near Charlotteville and Speyside, Tobago, Trinidad and Tobago. Along with the type and second species, P. disparipes Silvestri, from Guyana and known only from females, the segmental legs of P. rutherfordi alternate between long (anterior pairs) and short (posterior ones), spiracular openings are on straw-like tubules, and ozopores are located on paramedian metatergal spines. These features appear to be adaptations for biotopes of loose sand, detritus, or frass, and 17 specimens, including the six juveniles, exhibit coatings of “sand grains” that are loosely cemented together and to the smooth, translucent, grayish-white exoskeleton. The tubules and spines elevate the spiracles and ozopores above the coating, thereby ensuring that they remain open and functional.
The coating, which provides camoufl age and lends strength and rigidity to the poorly sclerotized exoskeleton, is a subuniform “pavement” that covers the entire animal except the labrum/clypeus, tarsal and antennal apices, prozonae, paraprocts, and the gonopods in males. Ramose/dendritic setae, particularly on narrowly rounded podo-/antennomeres, trap “sand grains,” and the ozopore secretions apparently constitute the “glue” that cements the coating, as evidenced circumstantially by layers of “sand” between the spines on the anterior metaterga, where they are physically closest. The alternating segmental leg lengths, in part due to differing ventrolateral and ventromedial origins, appear to be an adaptation for lateral/sideways motion in which the long (anterior) legs extend laterally and pull the body to the level of the short (posterior) ones, which continue the motion while the anterior legs extend to begin the next stroke. The opposing legs perform the complementary pushing motion a fraction after the long legs initiate the pulling stroke and hence are slightly and purposefully out of sync. An adult male paratype lacks the coating, probably because it had just molted and lacked time to amass it; the juvenile female paratype of P. disparipes also is “naked,” as was, according to Silvestri, the now lost adult female holotype. Until fresh material is collected, coatings cannot be confi rmed for P. disparipes even though it shares the anatomical modifi cations that seem adaptions for such. The minute, triramous gonotelopodites of P. rutherfordi are unlike any known for a chelodesmid, so the current generic placement, in a monotypic tribe in the nominate chelodesmid subfamily, is retained. With species in both South America and the southern Antilles, Pandirodesmus/ini had to exist on both the “proto-Antillean” terrane and the adjoining part of Pangaean Gondwana before the former rifted in the Cretaceous/Paleocene, ~66 million years ago, and P. rutherfordi is a remnant of the former population that became isolated on present-day Tobago when the terrane fragmented. Affi nity between Guyanan and southern Antillean platyrhacid millipeds (Polydesmida: Leptodesmidea) suggest that Pandirodesmus/ini may occur sporadically as far north in the island chain as St. Lucia.
Tiphallus torreon n. sp., the fi rst rhachodesmid milliped from Coahuila, Mexico, displays an iridescent turquoise pigmentation with patterned white paranotal markings and a truncated, subapical projection from the broad, non-descript gonopodal acropodite. Four genera – Strongylodesmus Saussure, Mexidesmus Loomis, and Ceuthauxus and Tiphallus, both by Chamberlin – contain forms exhibiting this general condition, but the last is the only one whose type species does. Synthetic treatments are essential to advance familial knowledge beyond the descriptive stage, and revising these four taxa would constitute a meaningful initial study. Rhachodesmidae extend from northern Nuevo León, Mexico, ca. 77 km (48 mi) from the Rio Grande, to central Costa Rica; Glomeridae (Glomerida), Platydesmidae (Platydesmida), and Stemmiulidae (Stemmiulida) show similar distributions whereas Allopocockiidae (Spirobolida) and Rhysodesmus Cook (Polydesmida: Xystodesmidae) traverse the river and occupy southernmost Texas. Tridontomidae, the other component of Rhachodesmoidea, occupies a small enclave in Alta Verapaz, Guatemala. Rhachodesmidae/oidea do not occur in Panama and are initially recorded from Belize; localities are needed from Honduras.
Mimuloria Chamberlin 1928 is revived from synonymy under Nannaria Chamberlin 1918a for Nannariini (Polydesmida: Xystodesmidae) with simple but apically ornamented gonopodal acropodites that arch or lean mediad and cross body midlines and opposing acropodites in situ. It encompasses two assemblages based primarily on the nature of the ornamentations, the castanea and dilatata species groups. The former includes three established species [M. castanea (McNeill 1887) M. missouriensis Chamberlin 1928 and M. davidcauseyi (Causey 1950a)], and the latter contains two new ones (M. dilatata [M. d. dilatata, M. d. sigmoidea], and M.
rhysodesmoides). Castanaria Causey 1950b is returned to synonymy under Mimuloria, and C. depalmai Causey 1950b is placed under M. castanea, thereby constituting a new synonymy. The fi rst illustrations of the holotype gonopods of Fontaria oblonga C. L. Koch 1847 and N. minor Chamberlin 1918a unequivocally establish their identities, and the convoluted nomenclatural tangle involving Oenomaea Hoffman 1964 and O. pulchella (Bollman 1889a) is detailed. Whether in Oenomaea or a new genus, separate generic status seems appropriate for Nannariini with subterminal solenomeres; N. morrisoni Hoffman 1948 and its potential synonym N. shenandoa Hoffman 1949 may also belong here. Initial tribal localities are reported from Alabama, South Carolina, and coastal Virginia and Maryland, and “O. pulchella” occurs in northern Alabama north/west of the Tennessee River; M. castanea is newly recorded from Missouri and Tennessee. A horizontally subtriangular distribution in the eastern and midwestern states is projected for Nannariini, which even occur on South Bass Island, Ohio, in Lake Erie, and may thus inhabit
nearby Pelee Island, Ontario, Canada.
Characterized by small body size, apically rounded/lobed anterior gonopod telopodites, long slender posterior gonopod telopodites, and torsion in the cyphopod receptacles, Floridobolus fl oydi, n. sp., is described from the southern sector of the Brooksville Ridge in northwestern peninsular Florida. It inhabits sandy “Big Scrub” environments like F. penneri Causey, 1957, and F. orini Shelley, 2014, and is documented from the sector’s center and northern periphery, in Hernando and Citrus Counties, respectively, with a sight record from the eastern periphery. Its discovery supports the thesis that each sand ridge in peninsular Florida may harbor a unique species of this endemic genus.
A summary of the milliped faunas of Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Kashmir (Arthropoda: Diplopoda)
(2014)
Three female callipodidan samples from northern Pakistan are assigned to Bollmania kohalana (Attems, 1936) (Caspiopetalidae), the only ordinal representative documented from the country; a new record of Kaschmiriosoma loebli Jeekel, 2003 (Polydesmida: Paradoxosomatidae), is also provided. Localities are summarized for the 14 Pakistani, 6 Kashmirian, and 5 Bangladeshi diplopods. The last include one unidentifi able female of Zephronia Gray, 1832 (Sphaerotheriida: Zephroniidae), and two adventive species, Trachyjulus calvus (Pocock, 1893) (Spirostreptida: Cambalopsidae) and Asiomorpha coarctata (Saussure, 1860) (Polydesmida: Paradoxosomatidae); all constitute new country records. Two obscurely documented Bangladeshi diplopods are Gonoplectus cautus (Attems, 1936) (Spirostreptida: Harpagophoridae), and Trichopeltis watsoni Pocock, 1895 (Polydesmida: Cryptodesmidae). The Pakistani polydesmidan, Quasidesmus puschtun Golovatch, 1991, is transferred from Pyrgodesmidae to Cryptodesmidae.
Past concepts and synonymies of Anadenobolus monilicornis (Porat, 1876) (Spirobolida: Rhinocricidae), including the implied synonymy of Rhinocricus ectus Chamberlin, 1920, are consolidated into a formal account with the fi rst illustrations of the holotype. Prior to 1492, A. monilicornis was probably indigenous to an unknown number of southern Antillean islands, but through modern commerce, man has introduced it to Florida, Bermuda, Barbados, the Cayman Islands, and Jamaica, and probably repeatedly (re)introduced conspecifi c material to all the Lesser Antilles, resulting in subcontinuous gene pool mixing and reticulate evolution. A broad species concept is necessary to encompass the multitudinous variants, some of which have been recognized as species; only one true Caribbean species of Anadenobolus Silvestri, 1897, may exist, for which arboreus (Saussure, 1859) is the oldest name. The distribution of A. monilicornis presently extends from Bermuda and southern coastal Florida through the Greater and Lesser Antilles (excepting Cuba) to eastern coastal Venezuela and central Suriname, with outlier populations in Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, and Tampa Bay and the eastern Floridian panhandle; excepting Barbados, the indigenous range may have extended from Hispaniola through the same area. Introductions into Manitoba, Canada, and North Carolina, USA, have not yielded viable populations. Localities are newly recorded from St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands.