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The millipede genus Metopidiothrix Attems (Diplopoda : Chordeumatida : Metopidiotrichidae)
Abstract
The millipede genus Metopidiothrix Attems, 1907 (Chordeumatida : Heterochordeumatoidea : Metopidiotrichidae), of south-east Asia, is examined and 30 new species (M. abuyog, M. anderssoni, M. apoensis, M. baletei, M. baybay, M. burckhardti, M. calamei, M. cameronensis, M. danao, M. dolok, M. gallus, M. gressetti, M. hoogsraali, M. kagpili, M. kalang, M. laguna, M. layang, M. lehtineni, M. leyte, M. loebli, M. mada, M. matang, M. mujong, M. nebulosa, M. samuelsonorum, M. santubong, M. schawalleri, M. sedgwicki, M. visca, M. werneri) are added to the genus. The synonymy of M. javana Chamberlin under M. lacertosa Attems is confirmed. Notes are provided on natural history, biogeography and taxonomic characters. The family Metopidiotrichidae is closely related to the Heterochordeumatidae. A key to the genera of Metopidiotrichidae is presented. The family is divided for the first time into three subfamilies: Metopidiotrichinae Attems contains Metopidiothrix and Reginaterreuma Mauriès, 1987; Neocambrisomatinae Mauriès (new status) includes Neocambrisoma Mauriès, 1987, Australeuma Golovatch, 1987, Nesiothrix Shear & Mesibov, 1997 and Nipponothrix Shear & Tanabe, 1994; and Schedotrigoninae Mauriès (new status) includes only Schedotrigona Silvestri, 1903.
... Among their tropical representatives, the family Metopidiothrichidae is the most diverse. It is characterized by the synapomorphy of the enlarged and partially sclerotized coxal glands in the 10 th pair of male legs [15] and comprises seven genera: Nipponothrix Shear & Tanabe, 1994, Australeuma Golovatch, 1984, Nesiothrix Shear & Mesibov, 1997, Reginaterreuma Mauriès, 1987, Neocambriosoma Mauriès, 1987, Schedotrigona Silvestri, 1903and Metopidiothrix Attems, 1907, distributed in southeastern Asia, tropical and temperate Australia, New Zealand and Japan. The genus Metopidiothrix, revised by Shear [15], has 38 described species and is remarkable because males possess the most extensive secondary sexual modifications in all millipedes. ...
... It is characterized by the synapomorphy of the enlarged and partially sclerotized coxal glands in the 10 th pair of male legs [15] and comprises seven genera: Nipponothrix Shear & Tanabe, 1994, Australeuma Golovatch, 1984, Nesiothrix Shear & Mesibov, 1997, Reginaterreuma Mauriès, 1987, Neocambriosoma Mauriès, 1987, Schedotrigona Silvestri, 1903and Metopidiothrix Attems, 1907, distributed in southeastern Asia, tropical and temperate Australia, New Zealand and Japan. The genus Metopidiothrix, revised by Shear [15], has 38 described species and is remarkable because males possess the most extensive secondary sexual modifications in all millipedes. ...
... Easily distinguished from any other species of Metopidiothrix by the combination of the unique cyphopod shape, the flattened male head, the enlargement of the third pair of male legs, the distinctive anterior and posterior gonopods, including two slender processes on apex of the latter and extremely reduced glabrous telopodite podomere on leg 10 in males (cf. [15]). ...
Laboulbeniales are highly specific ectoparasitic fungi of arthropods (insects, millipedes, and arachnids). The first Laboulbeniales parasitizing the millipede order Chordeumatida (Diplopoda) were discovered and described as a new dioecious genus of Laboulbeniales, Thaxterimyces, to accommodate the new species T. baliensis. Also the millipede host is a new species and is described as Metopidiothrix sheari. This is the first time Laboulbeniales fungus and its millipede host are described as new together. Males of Metopidiothrix have the most extensive secondary sexual modifications in the entire class Diplopoda. Although nothing is known about the function of these modifications, the unique pattern of Laboulbeniales infection in the new millipede species is obviously related to host sexual behavior. Rotational Scanning Electron Micrographs (rSEM) are used to create a 3D comprehensive model to examine the fungal-host interaction, a more advanced visualization of the ectoparasitic fungus on its host. Laboulbeniales diversity on millipedes is still understudied, and a consistent effort is needed to unveil and understand the extent and diversity of this biological interaction. Due to their minute size and apparently non-detrimental effect on their hosts, Laboulbeniales in general have been largely ignored by mycologists and neglected by generations of entomologists. As a result a significant component of global biodiversity has been strongly underestimated, and a wealth of new discoveries is still to be made both in the field and in existing museum collections.
... Only in southeast Asia have chordeumatid millipedes enjoyed clear success, having at least four families represented (Heterochordeumatidae, Metopidiotrichidae, Vieteumatidae and Megalotylidae) with an increasing number of genera and species (i.e. Golovatch 1984, Shear 2000, 2002. So far, all species described have come from forest leaf litter or from caves. ...
... Collecting in tropical leaf litter in southeast Asia, the Indonesian archipelago, Borneo and the Philippines has produced more than 35 species of the chordeumatidan genus Metopidiothrix Attems 1907 (Shear 2002), many of these species represented by abundant samples. Some narrow geographical regions yield several sympatric species of Metopidiothrix. ...
Pyrgeuma pyrgodesmoides n. gen., n. sp., is described from the Cameron Highlands of Malaysia as the sixth (or possibly seventh) species and third genus of the millipede family Heterochordeumatidae. The new species is remarkable in its re-semblance to members of the unrelated polydesmidan family Pyrgodesmidae, an interesting case of convergent evolution in the tropical soil and litter fauna. The dorsal surface of the body is covered in small, curved, spatulate microtrichia and the metzonital setae are reduced to nearly undetectable size.
... In southeast Asia, the situation is different. The families Megalotylidae, Vieteumatidae, Metopidiotrichidae and Heterochordeumatidae are found from southern China to Sumatera, New Guinea and northeastern Australia, and at least the latter two are very species-rich; Metopidiothrix Attems is the third largest chordeumatidan genus in number of species, and many more remain to be named (Shear 2002). Metopidotrichids also occur in subtropical and temperate Australia (Shear & Mesibov 1994). ...
... Of the fifteen species listed below, most have been redescribed by me in my 1972 monograph. Based on the facts that 1) virtually every new collection seen from Central America consists of new species, 2) all of the known species come from single (or a few closely clustered) localities, and 3) up to three species can be collected at a single place, I confidently predict that the diversity of cleidogonids in that region will eventually rival the diversity of Metopidiothrix in southeast Asia (Shear 2002). ...
Cleidogona huebnerae, n. sp., is described from La Gamba Tropical Research Station, Costa Rica. A total of sixteen species in three genera of Cleidogonidae are known from Central America (Guatemala south to Panama), and they are reviewed here.
... Records from Thailand: Satun Province, Thale Ban NP, at Yarold waterfall, 400 m, lowland rain forest (Shear 2002). Shear noted that the species is named after one of the collectors, indicated as " N. Andersson " . ...
... This large genus was revised by Shear (2002). Records from Thailand: Satun Province, Thale Ban NP, at Yarold waterfall, 400 m, lowland rain forest (Shear 2002). Shear noted that the species is named after one of the collectors, indicated as " N. Andersson " . ...
After forty years, the type specimens kept in the Myriapoda Collection of the Hungarian Natural History Museum are revisited, a current catalogue is provided, and the status of the old names are updated and reevaluated. A total of 239 nominal taxa (species, subspecies, varietas and forma) are listed which is an almost fivefold increase compared to the number (35) of the previous catalogue from 1983. Two collections of old type specimens arrived to the museum after 1983: a set of Daday’s types from the Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle Genève in 2004, and another collection containing Loksa’s material from the Department of Systematic Zoology and Ecology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, in 2017. Thorough search in the collection revealed type material of 66 species-group taxa originally considered lost. 53 type specimens that were supposedly deposited in the Hungarian Natural History Museum are missing, and the possible reason for that is discussed. In addition, a comprehensive bibliography is given along with the names of all type taxa dealt in those publications. With 43 figures, 8 tables, and an appendix.
The family Metopidiotrichidae and the genus Metopidiothrix Attems, 1907 are formally new to the fauna of Taiwan, due to the discovery of Metopidiothrix taiwanensis sp. nov. The fauna of Chordeumatida of Taiwan is reviewed and keyed, at present containing 13 unquestioned species from three genera and three families. Three further species, one genus and one family are dubious either as taxa or as elements of the Taiwanese fauna, or both. Palaearctic elements, such as Diplomaragnidae and Niponiosomatidae, appear to strongly dominate over austral/tropical ones (Metopidiotrichidae).
The diversity of Diplopoda in caves of southern China is remarkably high, often 5-6 species per cave, consisting mostly of local endemics and presumed troglobionts. These are evidently biased to just a few lineages, mainly members of the orders Chordeumatida and Callipodida, the families Cambalopsidae (Spirostreptida) and Haplodesmidae (Polydesmida) or the genera Pacidesmus, Epanerchodus and Glenniea (all Polydesmida, Polydesmidae), Trichopeltis (Polydesmida, Cryptodesmidae), Dexmoxytes (Polydesmida, Paradoxosomatidae) and Hyleoglomeris (Glomerida, Glomeridae). All these taxa, especially the Paradoxosomatidae and Cambalopsidae (usually amounting to about 60% and 10% of the total species diversity in the Oriental fauna, respectively), are moderately to highly speciose across Southeast Asia, being largely epigean. However, the epigean Diplopoda of southern China are yet badly understudied, since much of the collecting and taxonomic exploration efforts still focus on cavernicoles. The Oriental Region is the only biogeographic realm globally that harbours all 16 orders of Diplopoda, of which 14 have already been encountered in China and/or the immediately adjacent parts of Indochina. Thus, China may actually prove to support no less than 1,000 millipede species of various origins, mainly Oriental and Palaearctic.
Field Museum’s Millipede Collection currently comprises 376 type lots for 208 species. Types of the millipede orders Glomeridesmida (4 species), Sphaerotheriida (2 species), Polyzoniida (1 species), Platydesmida (7 species), Siphonophorida (8 species), Stemmiulida (10 species), Chordeumatida (17 species), Polydesmida (103 species), Spirobolida (33 species), Spirostreptida (19 species), and Julida (4 species) are represented. The collection contains type specimens of species described by the authors Bond & Sierwald (3 species), Chamberlin (95 species), Golovatch (1 species), Golovatch, Vohland & Hoffman (4 species), Hoffmann (8 species), Keeton (1 species), Loomis (85 species), Mauriès (2 species), Shear (4 species), Shear & Leonard (1 species), Shelley (1 species), Vohland (1 species), and Wesener & Sierwald (2 species). Amplinus fortinus Chamberlin, 1952 (Polydesmida: Aphelidesmidae) is identified as a nomen nudum. The millipede type material is separated from the main collection and vials are organized by order in jars. All lots are identified with a unique collection number. Specimen data are cataloged and maintained in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. The collection catalog is slated to be moved to a relational database (KE-EMU) within the next few years.
A new genus and species,
Infulathrix siam, gen. et sp. nov. and a new species,
Heterochordeuma petarberoni, sp. nov. are described from
southeast Asia, and the previously known members of the Heterochordeumatidae
are reviewed. The genusSumatreuma Hoffman is placed in
the synonymy of Heterochordeuma Pocock.
Heterochordeumatid gonopod structure is not primitive, as previously supposed,
but apomorphic within the superfamily Heterochordeumatoidea and the Diplopoda
in general. The families of the order Chordeumatida are grouped into four
suborders: Chordeumatidea, Heterochordeumatidea, Craspedosomatidea and
Striariidea.
The metopidiotrichid millipede genus Australeuma Golovatch, 1986, erected for two species from Tasmania, is revised and enlarged to include two new Tasmanian species and one each from Victoria and Western Australia. Two new Tasmanian species are added to Neocambrisoma Mauriès, 1987, previously known from a New South Wales species. Nesiothrix, gen. nov., is erected for Schedotrigona tasmanica Golovatch, 1986, and two new Tasmanian species. Reginaterreuma victorianum, sp. nov., is described from Victoria. Identification keys are provided for all metopidiotrichids currently recognised from Australia.