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A new family, Electrocambalidae fam. nov. of the suborder Cambalidea is described from Cretaceous Burmese amber based on two new genera, Electrocambala gen. nov. and Kachincambala gen. nov. with four new species, Electrocambala ornata gen. et sp. nov., E. cretacea gen. et sp. nov., Kachincambala muelleri gen. et sp. nov. and K. distorta gen. et sp. nov. The specimens are described combining classical light microscopy with drawings and photography, and modern micro-computed tomography (μCT). Morphological characters otherwise obscured are examined and visualized by creating volume renderings and 3D-segmentations from μCT data. Electrocambalidae fam. nov. is characterized by the following character combination: (1) a forward shift of leg pair 3, resulting in an apparently legless 3rd body ring, (2) presence of metazonital setae, and (3) extensive pilosity on the head. Although some of these characters are shared with other Juliformia they are unique in this combination. The described fossils are the oldest and first Mesozoic Spirostreptida and Cambalidea known and ca 70 million years older than previous records of the group.
Two new species of giant pill-millipedes, Zephronia viridisoma Rosenmejer & Wesener sp. nov. and Sphaerobelum aesculus Rosenmejer & Wesener sp. nov., are described based on museum samples from southern Thailand. Zephronia viridisoma sp. nov. comes from Khao Lak, while the type locality of S. aesculus sp. nov. is on Phuket Island. Both species are described integratively, combining light microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, multi-layer photography, micro-CT scans and genetic barcoding. Genetic barcoding was successfully conducted for holotypes of both new species, which could be added to a dataset of all published sequences of the family Zephroniidae, including all described species from Thailand, Laos and Cambodia up to 2020. Genetic barcoding of the COI gene revealed another female of S. aesculus sp. nov., 160 km east of the type locality. Both new species are genetically distant from all other Zephroniidae from Thailand and surrounding countries, showing uncorrected p-distances of 16.8–23.1%. A virtual cybertype of a paratype of Z. viridisoma sp. nov. was created and made publically accessible.
The species-rich giant pill-millipedes (Sphaerotheriida) often represent a microendemic component of Madagascar’s mega-invertebrate fauna. Of the chirping genus Sphaeromimus de Saussure & Zehntner, 1902, ten species have been described. Here, we describe two new species of Sphaeromimus integratively, combining light microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, DNA barcoding and micro-CT technology for the first time in a taxonomic description of a giant pillmillipede. S. kalambatritra sp. nov. and S. midongy sp. nov. are the first giant pill-millipedes collected and described from the mountainous rainforests of Kalambatritra and Midongy. Both species show island gigantism compared to their congeners. Our analysis of the mitochondrial COI gene shows that the two species are related to one another with a moderate genetic distance (9.4%), while they are more closely related to an undetermined specimen from the forest of Vevembe (6.3% and 8.4%). They stand in a basal position with S. ivohibe Wesener, 2014 and S. musicus (de Saussure & Zehntner, 1897). The four aforementioned species share a high number of stridulation ribs on the male harp. Our micro-CT analysis provides a look into the head of S. kalambatritra sp. nov. and shows that non-destructive CT methods are a useful tool for studying the inner morphology of giant pill-millipedes.