A mountain of millipedes VI. New records, new species, a new genus and a general discussion of Odontopygidae from the Udzungwa Mts, Tanzania (Diplopoda, Spirostreptida, Odontopygidae)
Author
Enghoff, Henrik
text
European Journal of Taxonomy
2018
2018-01-11
394
1
29
journal article
31016
10.5852/ejt.2018.394
54a11801-d3d3-4b76-9f6c-7a9c27677825
1146158
94028C61-FAC5-4A21-BF2D-A75BBF3CCC4D
Genus
Helicochetus
Attems, 1909
Helicochetus
Attems, 1909a: 158
.
Type species
Spirostreptus dimidiatus
Peters, 1855
, by original designation. See further below.
Other included species
Helicochetus aberrans
Kraus, 1966
(
Zambia
)
,
H. digititarsus
Kraus, 1957
(
Democratic Republic of the
Congo
,
Tanzania
),
H. electricus
Kraus, 1958
(
Democratic Republic of the
Congo
),
H. gregorii
(
Pocock, 1896
) (
Kenya
)
,
H. inversus
Kraus, 1958
(
Democratic Republic of the
Congo
),
H. involutus
Attems, 1935
(
Democratic Republic of the
Congo
),
H. laciniatus
Attems, 1935
(
Democratic Republic of the
Congo
),
H. levifolius
Attems, 1914
(”Sambesi”,
Mozambique
),
H. monodon
Kraus, 1960
(
Zambia
)
,
H. mutaba
Kraus, 1960
(
Democratic Republic of the
Congo
),
H. pococki
(Carl, 1909) (
Tanzania
)
,
H. rarus
Kraus, 1958
(
Democratic Republic of the
Congo
).
Kraus (1960)
provided an identification key to the species, except
H. aberrans
.
Remarks
The material from the Udzungwa Mts includes specimens of two species of
Helichochetus
. Separate descriptive notes are given for each species, but two characters shared by both species may prove to be genus-characteristic and are therefore commented on here.
LIMBUS (
Fig. 4A, C, E
).
Kraus (1960)
characterized the limbus of
Helichochetus
(translated from German): “Limbus divided by rounded indentations into processes which each carry three to six nail-like points. Limbus very broad, ca. 10 × as broad as the processes, with a silky sheen due to the characteristic surface sculpture (exception
H. laciniatus
)”. The limbus of the two studied species, especially
H. mutaba
, is indeed very broad (
Fig. 4A, C
), and the processes and nail-like points agree fully with Kraus’ description. It is not clear from his publications (
Kraus 1960
,
1966
) what he meant by the “characteristic surface structure”. The SEM images (
Fig. 4A, C, E
) provide no clue. There is, however, another remarkable detail, visible in
Fig. 4E
: under the limbus proper, there is a “sub-limbus” consisting of rounded, almost semicircular lobes.
CYTOSCUTE DENTICLES (
Fig. 4B, D, F
). The “cytoscutes”, i.e., cuticular “cells” each corresponding to a hypodermis cell (
Fusco
et al.
2000
) very often carry a row of tiny denticles along one edge. In both studied species of
Helicochetus
, these denticles are much larger than normal and point away from the cuticular surface rather than lying parallel to it.