Nearctomeris, a new genus of Pill Millipedes from North America, with a comparison of genetic distances of American Pill Millipede Genera (Glomerida, Glomeridae)
Author
Wesener, Thomas
text
Zootaxa
2012
3258
58
68
journal article
10.5281/zenodo.210225
53a9cdb5-58c8-4846-ad4e-cbc984ede1aa
1175-5326
210225
Nearctomeris
new genus
Etymology.
Nearctomeris
, feminine, after the Nearctic ecozone where this genus is distributed, and -meris, a common suffix for members of the order
Glomerida
.
Diagnosis.
Nearctomeris
can only be confused with members of the genus
Onomeris
, with which it often occurs in sympatry. Being of similar size and color, a determination is only possible after observing an unrolled specimen under magnification. See the determination key for a list of the numerous morphological characters separating
Onomeris
and
Nearctomeris
.
Type
species:
Nearctomeris inexpectata
n. sp.
Description.
Since
Nearctomeris
is currently monotypic, see the description of
N. inexpectata
n. sp.
below.
Position of
Nearctomeris
within the
Glomerida
.
The telopods of
Nearctomeris
, the only structure widely known through all pill millipede genera, closely resemble those of the Asian genera
Hyleoglomeris
Verhoeff, 1910
and
Hyperglomeris
Silvestri, 1917
. In the current classification system by
Mauriès (2005)
,
Nearctomeris
would be placed in the family
Glomeridae
(telopod with trichostele), subfamily
Glomerinae
(podomeres of telopod not elongated). The tribal position is more difficult to determine, either Glomerini or Doderiini (both with trichosteles on the prefemur and femur).
Nearctomeris
differs from other members of the tribe Glomerini (
Glomeris
et al.
) by the presence of a reduced telopodite of the male leg 17, similar to some (all?)
Hyleoglomeris
,
Hyperglomeris
, and
Onomeris
species.