Review of the millipede family Trichopolydesmidae in the Oriental realm (Diplopoda, Polydesmida), with descriptions of new genera and species

Abstract

In the Oriental Region, the large, basically Northern Hemisphere family Trichopolydesmidae is shown to currently comprise 18 genera and 43 species. Based mainly on gonopod structure, all of them, as well as the whole family, are (re)diagnosed, including five new genera and seven new species. These new taxa are keyed, also being the first to be described from Indochina in general and from Vietnam in particular: Aporodesmella gen. n., with three species: A. securiformis sp. n. (the type species), A. similis sp. n. and A. tergalis sp. n., as well as the following four monotypic genera: Deharvengius gen. n., with D. bedosae sp. n., Gonatodesmus gen. n., with G. communicans sp. n., Helicodesmus gen. n., with H. anichkini sp. n., and Monstrodesmus gen. n., with M. flagellifer sp. n. In addition, Cocacolaria hauseri Hoffman, 1987, hitherto known only from New Ireland Island, Papua New Guinea, is redescribed based on material from Vanuatu whence it is recorded for the first time. One of the new genera, Gonatodesmus gen. n., provides a kind of transition or evolutionary bridge between Trichopolydesmidae and Opisotretidae, thus reinforcing the assignment of these two families to the single superfamily Trichopolydesmoidea. © Sergei I. Golovatch et al.