taxonID	type	description	language	source
E14E87DE662DFFD70528F970FBECA148.taxon	description	Figs 1 – 14, 28, 29.	en	VandenSpiegel, D., Golovatch, S. I. (2023): On two poorly-known species of the millipede family Polydesmidae (Diplopoda: Polydesmida) from Central Asia. Arthropoda Selecta 32 (1): 15-22, DOI: 10.15298/arthsel.32.1.02, URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7576486
E14E87DE662DFFD70528F970FBECA148.taxon	materials_examined	MATERIAL EXAMINED. Syntypes: 2 ♂♂, 1 ♀ (SMNPS), [USSR], Uzbek SSR (now Uzbekistan), Kitab, near irrigation stream, 31. V. 1962, L. M. Semenova leg. According to Gulička [1963], the type series of Turanodesmus kitabensis consisted of the holotype ♂, the allotype ♀, and further 5 ♂♂ and 6 ♀♀ paratypes. According to A. Mock (in litt.), however, the SMNPS collection presently comprises 10 ♂♂, 8 ♀♀ and 1 juvenile, all contained in a single jar. Because Gulička seems to have failed to select, separate and properly label the holo- and allotype, for the time being it appears better to treat everything as syntypes. Lectotype designation thus remains to be formalized by other colleagues, if necessary. DESCRIPTIVE NOTES. Because the original description [Gulička, 1963] was too succinct and accompanied by only a single crude sketch of a gonopod, we profit by providing here both a short redescription and, above all, a sufficiently detailed iconography (Figs 1 – 14, 28, 29). Adult body ca 10 (♂) or 9 mm long (♀), and 0.8 mm wide (♂, ♀) (vs 8 – 9.5 mm long in the original description). Coloration in alcohol uniformly light yellow-pink (Figs 1, 2) (vs yellow-white with rusty tint in the original description). Body with 20 segments. Tegument dull, texture very delicately shagreened. Head pilose nearly throughout, with squarish genae and three distinct central teeth at anterior margin. Antennae long and only slightly clavate. In width, collum <ring 2 <3 = 4 <head = 5 = 15, thereafter body gradually tapering towards telson (Figs 3 – 5). Paraterga poorly developed, but evident, set high (at about upper third of midbody height), starting with collum, mostly subhorizontal vs a clearly convex dorsum, usually with three or four small, lateral, setigerous indentations. Caudolateral corners of paraterga rounded in a few anterior rings, then increasingly angular and obtuse to finally subrectangular and nearly pointed in rings 17 – 19, not extended past rear tergal margin, devoid of calluses. Pore formula normal, ozopores small, lateral, located in posteriormost marginal indentation. Metatergal sculpture typical, poorly-developed, obliterate, with three transverse rows of typical (= polydesmid), setigerous, polygonal bosses (Figs 3 – 5). Tergal setae very short, slightly longer only on collum and a few caudalmost rings, subclavate and finely barbed (Fig. 7), often obliterate. Stricture between pro- and metazona wide, shallow and as finely microgranulate as prozona (Fig. 4). Limbus very thin, microtrichous, microtrichs often being bifid (Fig. 8). Pleurosternal carinae absent. Epiproct short, conical, carrying a group of four setiform spinnerets at tip, pre-apical lateral papillae very small (Fig. 6). Hypoproct semi-circular; caudal, paramedian, setigerous papillae small and well-separated (Fig. 6). Sterna without modifications, densely setose; sternum between ♂ legs 9 unmodified as well. Legs generally rather long and slender (♂, ♀), only slightly incrassate (Figs 1, 2, 9), ca 1.3 – 1.4 times as long as midbody height, densely setose, microgranulate ventrally, but devoid of evident sphaerotrichomes (♂, ♀); prefemora devoid of lateral bulges (Fig. 9). Gonopods (Figs 9 – 14) clearly curved ventrad, in situ crossing each other only distally, with large, subquadrate coxites (cx) strongly fused medially at base, each carrying only a few setae ventrolaterally and a large round lobe (ro) distoventrally; a long unciform cannula (ca) as usual. Telopodites (te) elongated, but rather stout, subfalcate, prefemorite (= densely setose part) strongly delimited, almost half as long as entire te; seminal groove running entirely mesally until distally squeezing neatly between similarly shaped and long endomere (en) and exomere (ex) branches to move onto en at a nearly right angle and to almost immediately empty into a small, but evident accessory seminal chamber (neither visible in SEM micrographs, but shown in Gulička [1963]), the latter structure opening through a distinct hairy pulvillus (pu) at base of an unusually prominent, tubiform, membranous process (a), a being apparently hollow at tip and supplied with a strong, mesal, distad oriented spine (sp) (apparently, homologue to minute spinous process, or msp, in Nefediev [2022]) at its base and, even more basally, with another, even stronger, endomere process (ep) directed basad. Apical halves of both en and ex subequal, subfalcate and rounded at tip, but basal half of ex mesally showing an evident tooth (d, obviously homologue to subtriangular inner plate, or sip, in Nefediev [2022]) and a small, more basal step (t, obviously homologue to oval inner plate, or oip, in Nefediev [2022]). ♀ epigynal ridge (r) behind vulvae very low and inconspicuous; vulvae simple, operculum (op) small, anterior, as usual, while bursa (bu) densely setose and with a rather low and rather simple axial ridge (Figs 28, 29).	en	VandenSpiegel, D., Golovatch, S. I. (2023): On two poorly-known species of the millipede family Polydesmidae (Diplopoda: Polydesmida) from Central Asia. Arthropoda Selecta 32 (1): 15-22, DOI: 10.15298/arthsel.32.1.02, URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7576486
E14E87DE662DFFD70528F970FBECA148.taxon	discussion	REMARKS. There are several characters that make S. kitabensis clearly disjunct compared to all or most of the remaining eight species that Nefediev [2022] accepted in his recent review of the genus Schizoturanius: (1) S. clavatipes (Stuxberg, 1876), from both Western and Central Siberia, Russia; (2) S. dmitriewi (Timotheew, 1897), from central and eastern Ukraine, southwestern and central European Russia, and the Altai Mountains, southwestern Siberia, Russia; (3) S. dshungaricus Golovatch, 1979, from the Dzhungarsky Alatau Mountains, eastern Kazakhstan; (4) S. krugovae Nefediev, 2022, from the Altai Mountains, southwestern Siberia, Russia; (5) S. levis Mikhaljova, 2013, from the Zaysan District of eastern Kazakhstan; (6) S. montivagus Lohmander, 1933, from near Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan; (7) S. strongylosomoides (Attems, 1904), the type-species, from near Przhevalsk (now Karakol), Kyrgyzstan; and (8) S. tabescens (Stuxberg, 1876), from both Western and Central Siberia, Russia. Thus, sexual dimorphism in S. kitabensis is far from striking, the legs being subequally slender, only slightly incrassate and long in relation to body height in both sexes (Figs 1, 2), even though ♀♀ are as usual slightly larger and bulkier than ♂♂. In most Polydesmidae where the ♀ sex is known even superficially the ♂ legs are typically longer and considerably incrassate compared to the ♀ (e. g., Figs 15, 16). However, this trait is quite variable, including the laterally bulged vs non-bulged ♂ prefemora or the presence vs absence of sphaerotrichomes at least on some ♂ legs, and can therefore hardly be taken as a genus-level character, instead rather reflecting a trend. For example, the same trend concerns the very large Asian genus Epanerchodus (see also below) which includes> 120 species, both epigean and cavernicolous (e. g., Liu, Golovatch [2018]). Another distinct character of Schizoturanius kitabensis as opposed to all congeners but S. tabescens is the presence of laterally indentate paraterga. These are mostly smooth in Schizoturanius spp. Yet this character, as well as the metaterga being totally smooth to clearly tuberculate, appear to be highly variable within many genera of Polydesmidae, including the rather species-rich northern Asian Jaxartes Verhoeff, 1930 (e. g., Spelda et al. [1999], Antić et al. [2019]) and Uniramidesmus Golovatch, 1979 (e. g., Mikhaljova [2017]). Species of the former genus show smooth to tuberculate metaterga, and laterally smooth to indentate paraterga, vs smooth to tuberculate metaterga, but laterally always indentate paraterga in Uniramidesmus. The tergal setae in Schizoturanius kitabensis seem to be quite particular, being short, clavate and finely barbed (Fig. 7), this obviously being characteristic of the species. However, we know too little yet about the fine structure of the metatergal setae of most of the other congeners. At least in S. krugovae, the tergal setae seem to be simple and nonclavate [Nefediev, 2022], same as in some Jaxartes [Antić et al., 2019] and Epanerchodus species (Fig. 17). The same concerns the limbus which is microtrichous in Schizoturanius kitabensis (Fig. 8), vs nearly entire in S. krugovae [Nefediev, 2022], typically entire in Jaxartes [Antić et al., 2019] or densely microspiculate to microtrichous in Epanerchodus species (e. g., Figs 21, 22 and Liu, Golovatch [2018]). What seems to be especially noteworthy, however, is that the gonopod structure of Schizoturanius kitabensis is also highly peculiar, being perhaps the most elaborate among congeners. Against the background of all main structural features characteristic of the genus [Nefediev, 2022], such as the biramous gonotelopodite branching into an exo- and an endomere (ex and en, in this case both similarly shaped and long), the course of the seminal groove, the presence of an accessory seminal chamber and a hairy pulvillus at the base of the endomere etc., a new, tubiform, membranous process (a) on en is not only developed, but it is unusually prominent and supplied with a strong, basal, mesal, distad oriented spine (sp), vs a relatively short and simple endomere process (ep), yet this as usual lying more basally and directed basad (Figs 10 – 14). In addition, the basal half of ex in S. kitabensis shows an evident mesal tooth (d) and, more basally, a step (t) (Figs 10 – 14), both easy to homologize with similar structures in other congeners. However, because these variations seem to be but species-specific, like is the unusually strongly shortened and dorsad expanded gonofemorite in S. tabescens [Mikhaljova, 2017], we are inclined to follow Nefediev [2022] in treating both S. kitabensis and S. tabescens as species, however disjunct, of Schizoturanius. Creating two monotypic genera to solely accommodate each of these two somewhat aberrant species seems superfluous, adding nothing to the understanding of their relationships and phylogeny.	en	VandenSpiegel, D., Golovatch, S. I. (2023): On two poorly-known species of the millipede family Polydesmidae (Diplopoda: Polydesmida) from Central Asia. Arthropoda Selecta 32 (1): 15-22, DOI: 10.15298/arthsel.32.1.02, URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7576486
E14E87DE662EFFD20510F95BFC7DA159.taxon	description	Figs 15 – 27, 30, 31.	en	VandenSpiegel, D., Golovatch, S. I. (2023): On two poorly-known species of the millipede family Polydesmidae (Diplopoda: Polydesmida) from Central Asia. Arthropoda Selecta 32 (1): 15-22, DOI: 10.15298/arthsel.32.1.02, URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7576486
E14E87DE662EFFD20510F95BFC7DA159.taxon	materials_examined	MATERIAL EXAMINED. 2 ♂♂, 1 ♀ (SMNPS), [USSR], Tajikistan, Muminabad, 25. V. 1962, L. M. Semenova leg. According to Andrej Mock (in litt.), the SMNPS collection presently comprises several ♂♂ and ♀♀, all contained in a single jar, of what Gulièka provisionally identified, but never published, as Usbekodesmus sp. It seems noteworthy that Golovatch [1979] determined and published the polydesmid material he had got from the very same Muminabad as U. redikorzevi. DESCRIPTIVE NOTES. Because the original description [Lohmander, 1933], however detailed and complete, was only accompanied by line drawings of a single gonopod, a vulva, and a ♀ coxa 2, again however nice, we profit by providing here both a short redescription and, above all, a sufficiently detailed iconography (Figs 15 – 27, 30, 31). Adult body ca 11 (♂) or 15 mm long (♀), and 1.4 (♂) or 1.9 mm wide (♀) (vs ca 12 – 13 mm long (♂, ♀) and 1.4 mm (♂) or 1.7 – 1.8 mm (♀) wide in the original description). Coloration in alcohol rather uniformly light yellow- to pinkbrown (Figs 15, 16) (vs yellowish brown in the original description). Body with 20 segments. Tegument shining, texture very delicately shagreened. Head moderately pilose in clypeolabral region, bare in vertigial and occipital regions, with squarish genae (Fig. 17). Antennae long and only slightly clavate (Figs 15 – 19). In width, collum <ring 2 <head <3 = 4 <5 = 15, thereafter body gradually tapering towards telson (Figs 17 – 19). Paraterga strongly developed, set high (at about upper quarter of midbody height), starting with collum, dorsum and paraterga only slightly convex (Figs 15 – 21). Caudolateral corner of paraterga always acute, increasingly clearly extending past rear tergal margin in rings 13 – 19 (♂) or 15 – 19 (♀), devoid of calluses, but clearly bordered both anterolaterally and laterally, usually with three or four small, lateral, setigerous indentations. Pore formula normal, ozopores small, dorsolateral, located above posteriormost marginal indentation. Metatergal sculpture typical, poorly-developed, rather obliterate, with three transverse rows of typical (= polydesmid), setigerous, polygonal bosses (Figs 17 – 21). Tergal setae very short, slightly longer only on collum, subclavate to bacilliform (Figs 15, 18), mostly obliterate. Stricture between pro- and metazona wide, shallow and nearly smooth (Figs 18, 19). Limbus very thin and microtrichous, microtrichiae being conspicuously microplumose (Figs 21, 22). Pleurosternal carinae absent. Epiproct rather long, conical, pre-apical lateral papillae very small (Fig. 19). Hypoproct semi-circular; caudal, paramedian, setigerous papillae small and well-separated. Sterna without modifications, moderately setose. Legs generally long and slender, clearly incrassate in ♂, slender in ♀ (Figs 15, 16), ca 1.3 – 1.4 (♂) or 1.1 – 1.2 (♀) times as long as midbody height, densely setose, with sphaerotrichomes on ♂ tibiae and tarsi ventrally, prefemora devoid of lateral bulges (Fig. 15). Gonopods (Figs 23 – 27) typical of the genus, coxite with a rounded distolateral lobe (ro), telopodite devoid of an exomere, but endomere (en) prominent, long and slender, finely and unevenly trifid at a laterad curved apex; both basal processes on femorite present, process 1 (p 1) being stout and much shorter than a spiniform process 2 (p 2). ♀ epigynal ridge (r) behind vulvae rather high and distinct; vulvae relatively complex, operculum (op) small, anterior, as usual, while bursa (bu) densely setose and equipped with a high and elaborate axial ridge (Figs 30, 31).	en	VandenSpiegel, D., Golovatch, S. I. (2023): On two poorly-known species of the millipede family Polydesmidae (Diplopoda: Polydesmida) from Central Asia. Arthropoda Selecta 32 (1): 15-22, DOI: 10.15298/arthsel.32.1.02, URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7576486
E14E87DE662EFFD20510F95BFC7DA159.taxon	discussion	REMARKS. Minor, definitely infraspecific variations concern only the shapes of the gonopodal processes p 1 and p 2 (Figs 23, 25 – 27), p 1 being slightly more slender and p 2 slightly shorter than depicted by Lohmander [1933]. The species was originally described from two places in Uzbekistan, one near Samarkand and the other at Guzar [Lohmander, 1933], later recorded from Muminabad, Tajikistan [Golovatch, 1979] and northern Afghanistan [Golovatch, 1991]. The syntypes are housed in the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, not revised. Acknowledgements. We are most grateful to Ján Lakota and Andrej Mock (both Slovakia) for sending us on loan the subsamples of the two millipede species treated above, as well as to Aurore Mathys (MRAC), who very skillfully took the colour pictures of fixed material. Pavel Nefediev (Barnaul, Russia) kindly provided his critiques to an advanced draft. The second author was partly supported by the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Programme No. 41 “ Biodiversity of Natural Systems and Biological Resources of Russia ”.	en	VandenSpiegel, D., Golovatch, S. I. (2023): On two poorly-known species of the millipede family Polydesmidae (Diplopoda: Polydesmida) from Central Asia. Arthropoda Selecta 32 (1): 15-22, DOI: 10.15298/arthsel.32.1.02, URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7576486
