Review of the western African millipede genus Diaphorodesmus Silvestri, 1896 (Diplopoda, Polydesmida, Chelodesmidae), with the description of a similar, but new monotypic genus from Cameroon

By

VandenSpiegel, Didier
Golovatch, Sergei
Mauriès, Jean-Paul

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2016

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

600

Pages

7-24

Subjects

Cameroon , Equatorial Guinea , new species , Nigeria , synonymy , taxonomy

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.600.9345

 

Abstract

The genus Diaphorodesmus is revised and shown to comprise only a single species, D. dorsicornis (Porat, 1894) by priority, with the only other formal congener, D. attemsii Verhoeff, 1938, considered as its junior subjective synonym, syn. n. A new monotypic genus, Diaphorodesmoides gen. n., is created to include D. lamottei sp. n., from southwestern Cameroon. Both these genera seem to be especially similar in sharing remarkable dorsal horns on metaterga 2–4, a unique synapomorphy in the basically Afrotropical subfamily Prepodesminae, family Chelodesmidae, to which they belong. In contrast to Diaphorodesmus which shows two, increasingly short, paramedian horns on each of metaterga 2–4, the ozopores borne on distinct porosteles, and the gonopod prefemoral process and solenophore less strongly elaborate, Diaphorodesmoides gen. n. has a single, increasingly large, central horn on each of metaterga 2–4, the ozopores opening flush dorsolaterally on the surface of poriferous paraterga, and both the gonopod prefemoral process and solenophore especially complex. The genus Campodesmoides VandenSpiegel, Golovatch & Nzoko Fiemapong, 2015, and its sole, and type, species C. corniger VandenSpiegel, Golovatch & Nzoko Fiemapong, 2015, are transferred from Campodesmidae to Chelodesmidae and formally synonymized with Diaphorodesmus and D. dorsicornis, both syn. n.