Expanded concept and revised taxonomy of the milliped family Xystodesmidae Cook, 1895 (Polydesmida: Leptodesmidea: Xystodesmoidea): incorporations of Euryuridae Pocock, 1909 and Eurymerodesmidae Causey, 1951, taxon revivals / proposals / transferrals, and a distributional update
Author
Shelley, Rowland M.
Author
Smith, Jamie M.
text
Insecta Mundi
2018
2018-09-28
660
1
41
journal article
10.5281/zenodo.3709976
b412f1c4-28b9-4786-9aec-f930c9c00373
1942-1354
3709976
015EC5C3-65C6-4418-BC6D-C36D58C4DCDD
Tribe
Eurymerodesmini
Causey 1951
, New Status
Diagnosis.
Small to moderately long and broad, stiff and inflexible or flexible
Euryurinae
with apically narrow, subtriangular epiprocts, anteriolateral paranotal corners smoothly rounded, without teeth; postgonopodal sterna in males and all sterna in females nearly glabrous or variably hirsute; ambulatory prefemora with or without spines. Gonopodal aperture glabrous and rounded/ovoid or large, hirsute, and elaborately modified with anterior indentations, and triangular or clavate lobes on caudal margins or flared caudolateral corners. Gonopodal coxae connected by membrane only, without sclerotized sterna or remnant of same; telopodites with or without variably long prefemoral processes and partial prefemoral extensions; plesiomorphic acropodites long, slender, and “stick-like,” extending sublinearly from prefemur and curving/bending abruptly (90°) subapically, “distal zones” short, apically (sub)acuminate; “inner” surfaces of acropodital stems adorned (dis)continuously up to “distal bends” with moderately long to long, stiff or wavy and flexible hairs, with or without apical clusters/tufts and equivalent tufts on “outer” margins. Cyphopod valves normal for family or enlarged with modified, dactyliform distal corners.
Components.
Two subtribes, Eurymerodesmina and Nannariina,
new statuses
.
Distribution.
East-Nearctic/eastern, central, southcentral, and southeastern
US
. The combined ranges of the two components encompass much of the eastern 1/2–2/3 of the
US
and extend, north/south, from western
New York
, northern
Ohio
and
Indiana
, central
Illinois
,
Missouri
south of the
Missouri
River, and northeastern
Nebraska
to northern peninsular
Florida
, the Gulf Coasts of
Florida
through
Texas
, and the Rio Grande. East/west, Eurymerodesmini extends from westcentral
New York
, eastcentral
Pennsylvania
,
Maryland
and
Virginia
west of Chesapeake Bay, and the Atlantic Coast of southeastern
North Carolina
through northeastern
Florida
to northeastern
Nebraska
and central
Kansas
, then angling progressively southwestward to the Rio Grande in
Texas
west of the confluence with the Pecos River (
Fig. 1
,
7
). A curious, slit-like hiatus curves from eastern
North Carolina
through central
South Carolina
and northcentral
Georgia
to northern Alabama. RMS has sampled intensively in this lacuna from North Carolina to
Georgia
without encountering either component, so students should be alert to potentially filling it in the future.