A review of the milliped genus Haplogonopus with commentary on the so-called “ Charactopygus-Bildung ” modification of spirostreptid paraprocts (Diplopoda: Spirostreptidae)
Author
Hoffman, Richard L.
text
Zootaxa
2011
2734
53
62
journal article
10.5281/zenodo.203121
cabb7848-5df6-4591-90e3-685a13024e8e
1175-5326
203121
Haplogonopus jeanneli
(Brolemann)
,
new combination
Figure 7
Charactopygus jeanneli
Brolemann, 1920
, in: Res. Sci. Voy. Alluaud & Jeannel en Afr. orient., 3: 95, text figs. xvii–xx, pl. VII, figs. 34, 35. Male
holotype
(Museum.national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris) from
“Pays Kikuyu...forêt de Nairobi, district de Kyambu”
[
Kenya
], Exped. Alluaud-Jeannel leg.
29 December 1911
.
Spirostreptus jeannelli
[sic]
:
Attems, 1950
, Ann. Naturh. Mus. Wien, 57: 188.
Charactopygus
(?) jeanelli [sic]
:
Krabbe, 1982
, Abh. Naturw. Ver. Hamburg, NF 24: 425.
Diagnosis.
This species is distinguished from
H. cingulatus
by the presence of a prominent, acuminate, antetorsal process on the gonotelopodite, which also lacks a posttorsal cingulum. The body is uniformly shiny black, with legs and antennae yellow. Diastemmal width not greater than the thickness of a labium, the latter not basally fossate.
Remarks.
The generic placement of this species was equivocal from the beginning. Brolemann himself remarked that “
Ces deux especes ne sont pas typique
” in contrasting his new forms
C. jeanneli
and
C. lucifugus
against the more characteristic members of the genus inhabiting various islands in the Indian Ocean. The so-called “
Charactopygus-Bildung”
of the paraprocts (in which the thickened marginal rims are separated by a small basal flange on the inner edge, see “Commentary” below), is now generally considered to have only specific value in classification,
Krabbe (1982: 135)
having defined
Charactopygus
on the basis of gonopod structure instead. The modification seems to have been Brolemann’s rationale in assigning his
Kenyan
species to
Charactopygus
.
The similarity of
jeanneli
to
inflatannulus
in gonopod structure is noted under that species, and is evident from Brolemann’s two figures of the gonopods, one reproduced as figure 7. That the telopodite is shown as nearly straight is probably the result of the gonopod having been macerated in a caustic solution.
Distribution.
Known only from the
type
locality, despite a modicum of general collecting in
Kenya
in recent decades. It is not certain if this patch of forest has survived the burgeoning population growth and rampant forest clearing around Nairobi, and it is possible that
jeanneli
is extinct.