A mountain of millipedes IV: Species of Prionopetalum Attems, 1909, from the Udzungwa Mountains, Tanzania. With notes on “ P. ” fasciatum (Attems, 1896) and a revised species key (Diplopoda, Spirostreptida, Odontopygidae)
Author
Henrik Enghoff
text
European Journal of Taxonomy
2016
215
1
23
journal article
10.5852/ejt.2016.215
1cb872fd-ebcd-4e9d-8366-58bc5ecbd050
399800
A9E7A041-A454-4BC1-BCF4-F1E021BFDCD5
Prionopetalum kraepelini
(
Attems, 1896
)
Figs 5–6
,
9
R,
11I
Odontopyge kraepelini
Attems, 1896
: 37
.
Prionopetalum stuhlmanni
Attems, 1914
: 210
.
New synonymy
Odontopyge pardalis
–
Attems 1896
: 39
.
Prionopetalum pardalis
–
Attems 1909
: 52
.
Prionopetalum kraepelini
–
Attems 1914
: 210
.
Not
Spirostreptus pardalis
Gerstäcker, 1873
.
Diagnosis
Differs from all congeners by the multi-cusped proximal telomere process (
Fig. 6
F).
Material studied
(total:
9 ♂♂
)
Syntypes
TANZANIA
:
1♂
,
1 ♀
,
Mhonda
(Unguru),
6 Sep. 1888
,
F. Stuhlmann
leg. (
ZMUH
).
Other material
TANZANIA
:
1 ♂
,
Lewa
(Usambara),
26 Apr. 1888
,
F. Stuhlmann
leg.,
holotype
of
Prionopetalum stuhlmanni
(
ZMUH
)
;
3 ♂♂
,
Morogoro Region
,
Mang’ula
, at
Udzungwa Ecological Monitoring
Centre
,
300 m
,
7°50'56" S
,
36°53'17" E
,
28–31 Sep. 2012
,
T. Pape
leg. (
ZMUC
)
;
4 ♂♂
,
Morogoro Region
,
Udzungwa Mts
,
Udzungwa Ecological Monitoring
Centre
,
Mang’ula
,
07°50'44.9" S
,
36°53'28.2" E
,
339 m
,
18–20 Jan. 2014
,
T. Pape
&
N. Scharff
leg. (
ZMUC
)
.
Type
locality
TANZANIA
:
Tanga
Regon, Lushoto District, Usambara Mts, Lewa.
Description (male)
SIZE. Length
c
.
5 cm
, diameter
3.2–3.6 mm
, 61–65 podous rings, no apodous rings in front of telson.
COLOUR. After 1–3 years in alcohol head amber below antennae, blackish above; antennae blackish brown; collum blackish brown with light margins; body rings light brown below ozopores and immediately above, dorsally blackish brown with broad middorsal light spot; telson and legs medium brown.
ANAL VALVES. Each with a long, pointed dorsal spine and a much smaller ventral one, marginal rim raised, with 3 setae on very poorly demarcated tubercles.
LIMBUS (
Fig. 5
F). With triangular, almost equilateral, pointed lobes, external surface of lobes densely striate.
MALE LEGS. Postfemora and tibiae with large soft pads, except on first four to five and several posteriormost leg pairs.
GONOPOD COXA (
Fig. 5
A
–E). Lateral margin almost straight, entirely smooth or with a tiny tubercle (
lt
) at
c
. ⅔ height. Mesal margin of proplica straight, proplical lobe (
prl
) in anterior view hidden behind apical expansion of metaplica. Basal part of metaplica with large, longitudinal mesad flange (
mlf
), separated by a deep sinus from an oblique-horizontal, two-lobed mesad flange (
mof
), apical part of metaplica expanded anteriad to form a process (
amp
) covering proplical lobe and produced disto-mesad into slender, apically bifid process (
mmp
).
Fig. 5.
Prionopetalum kraepelini
(Attems, 1896)
, specimen from Mang’ula, 339 m asl.
A–C
. Right gonopod coxa. A. Anterior view. B. Anterior-mesal view. C. Mesal view.
D–E
. Left gonopod. D. Posterior view. E. Anterior-mesal view.
F
. Midbody-dorsal limbus.
G
. Row of intercalary microscutes with knobs, from midbody metazona. Abbreviations:
amp
= anterior metaplical process;
lt
= lateral coxal tubercle;
mlf
= metaplical longitudinal flange;
mmp
= distomesal metaplical process;
mof
= metaplical oblique/horizontal flange;
prl
= proplical lobe. Scale bars: A–E = 0.1 mm; F–G = 0.001 mm.
Fig. 6.
Prionopetalum kraepelini
(Attems, 1896)
, specimen from Mang’ula, 339 m asl. Gonopod telopodite.
A
,
C–D
,
F
. Right gonopod telopodite. A. Posterior view. C. Apical (ventral) view. D. Anterior view. F. Telomere distal process.
B
. Tip of left solenomere.
E
. Left gonopod, (posterior-) mesal view. Abbreviations:
pts
= post-torsal spine;
pxl
= proximal lobe of telomere;
slm
= solenomere;
tdp
= telomeral distal process;
tpp
= telomeral proximal process. Scale bars: A, C–D, E = 0.1 mm; B, F = 0.2 mm.
GONOPOD TELOPODITE (
Figs 5
D–E, 6).
A
well-developed post-torsal spine (“femoral spine”,
pts
) inserted just before post-torsal narrowing. Solenomere (
slm
) simple, slender. Telomere with a large, proximal lobe (
pxl
). Proximal telomere process (
tpp
) elaborate, with a longitudinal 3–5-dentate flange and a slender apical process, in certain views (
Fig. 5
E) recalling the head profile of cartoon character Woody Woodpecker. Distal telomere process (
tdp
) only slightly broader than solenomere, apically with one margin denticulate (
Fig. 6
F).
Distribution and habitat
In addition to the newly collected material from the Udzungwa Mts, Udzungwa Ecological Monitoring
Centre
, Mang’ula (http://www.udzungwacentre.org/) at
300–339 m
asl,
O
. kraepelini
has been recorded from several other sites, all in
Tanzania
:
Morogoro Region
, Mhonda (Nguru) (
type
locality)
;
Tanga Region
, Lushoto Distr. Usambara Mts, Lewa (
type
locality of
P. stuhlmanni
)
;
Arusha Region
,
Arusha
District, near Lake Babati
;
Dar es Salaam
(the latter two records by
VandenSpiegel & Pierrard 2009
).
Coexisting species
At Mang’ula,
P. kraepelini
was collected together with another odontopygid species which will be described in a forthcoming article.
Remarks
Two of the four species of
Odontopyge
(re)described by
Attems (1896)
distinguished themselves by the possession of a peculiar, multi-cusped process on the gonopod telopodite. This process, labelled
c
on Attems’ figures, corresponds to the proximal telomere process (
tpp
) in the sense of the present paper. The two species in question were
O. kraepelini
, described as new, and a species which Attems identified as
O. pardalis
(Gerstäcker)
. He later (
Attems 1914
) realised that this was not the real
pardalis
Gerstäcker
and offered the replacement name
Prionopetalum stuhlmanni
Attems, 1914
(
pardalis
has subsequently been transferred to the genus
Calyptomastix
Hoffman & Howell, 2012
).
The two species,
kraepelini
and
stuhlmanni
, are very similar indeed according to the descriptions and illustrations offered by
Attems (1896)
. The only substantial apparent difference concerns the profile of the gonopod coxa.
Attems (1896)
provided two gonopod drawings of
stuhlmanni
(as
pardalis
), and one of
kraepelini
. The three drawings are all quite different regarding the gonopod coxa profiles, but this is due to the fact that two of them, the one of
kraepelini
(Attems’ fig. 1) and one of those of
stuhlmanni
(Attems’ fig. 8), are based on gonopods macerated in KOH, whereas his fig. 7 (of
stuhlmanni
) is based on unmacerated gonopods. Attems’ fig. 7 is fully compatible with the present illustrations (
Figs 5–6
) of specimens from Mang’ula, and side-by-side comparisons of the body and gonopods of Mang’ula specimens with the
holotype
of
stuhlmanni
reveal no differences (see
Fig. 2
for agreement in body size). The male
syntype
of
kraepelini
is devoid of its gonopods, and these are not retrievable elsewhere. I interpret the apparent differences between macerated gonopods of
kraepelini
(
Attems 1896: fig. 1
) and
stuhlmanni
(
Attems 1896: fig. 8
) as being artificial and possibly due to different durations of the KOH maceration, and I therefore synonymize the two names.
Knob-like intercalary cuticular micro-scutes were observed in this species (
Fig. 5
G), cf.
Enghoff (2014)
.
Under the name
Prionopetalum stuhlmanni
this species is a popular pet millipede; see, e.g.,
Sigling (
2010
)
and http://www.diplopoda.de/index.php (accessed
29 February 2016
).