Epanerchodus redikorzevi ( Lohmander, 1933 )

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), pp. 15-22 : 18-21

publication ID	https://doi.org/10.15298/arthsel.32.1.02
DOI	https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15557547
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/E14E87DE-662E-FFD2-0510-F95BFC7DA159
treatment provided by	Felipe
scientific name	Epanerchodus redikorzevi ( Lohmander, 1933 )
status

Treatment

Epanerchodus redikorzevi ( Lohmander, 1933) View in CoL

Figs 15–27 View Figs 15–22 View Figs 23–27 , 30, 31 View Figs 28–31 .

Usbekodesmus redikorzevi Lohmander, 1933: 17 View in CoL , figs 5, 13– 15 (original description).

Usbekodesmus redikorzevi View in CoL — Lokšina, Golovatch, 1979: 384 (listing); Golovatch, 1979: 1000 (new record, from Muminabad!), 1991: 157 (new records, from northern Afghanistan); Read, Golovatch, 1994: 65 (listing).

Epanerchodus redikorzevi View in CoL — Golovatch et al., 2011: 20 (new formal transfer and synonymization of Usbekodesmus Lohmander, 1933 View in CoL with Epanerchodus Attems, 1901 View in CoL ); Antić et al., 2019: 480 (listing).

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 View Figs 15–22 View Figs 23–27 , 30, 31 View Figs 28–31 ).

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 View Figs 15–22 ) (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 View Figs 15–22 ). Antennae long and only slightly clavate ( Figs 15–19 View Figs 15–22 ).

In width, collum <ring 2 <head <3=4 <5=15, thereafter body gradually tapering towards telson ( Figs 17–19 View Figs 15–22 ). Paraterga strongly developed, set high (at about upper quarter of midbody height), starting with collum, dorsum and paraterga only slightly convex ( Figs 15–21 View Figs 15–22 ). 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 View Figs 15–22 ). Tergal setae very short, slightly longer only on collum, subclavate to bacilliform ( Figs 15, 18 View Figs 15–22 ), mostly obliterate. Stricture between pro- and metazona wide, shallow and nearly smooth ( Figs 18, 19 View Figs 15–22 ). Limbus very thin and microtrichous, microtrichiae being conspicuously microplumose ( Figs 21, 22 View Figs 15–22 ). Pleurosternal carinae absent. Epiproct rather long, conical, pre-apical lateral papillae very small ( Fig. 19 View Figs 15–22 ). 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 View Figs 15–22 ), 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 View Figs 15–22 ).

Gonopods ( Figs 23–27 View 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 (p1) being stout and much shorter than a spiniform process 2 (p2).

♀ 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 View Figs 28–31 ).

REMARKS. Minor, definitely infraspecific variations concern only the shapes of the gonopodal processes p1 and p2 ( Figs 23, 25–27 View Figs 23–27 ), p1 being slightly more slender and p2 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 ”.