Monday, September 5, 2022

[Diplopoda • 2021] Klimakodesmus bilobocaudatus • The Millipede Genus Klimakodesmus Carl, 1932 (Polydesmida: Pyrgodesmidae), with the Description of A New Species from Kerala State, southern India


Klimakodesmus bilobocaudatus 
 Aswathy, Golovatch & Sudhikumar, 2021


Abstract
Klimakodesmus Carl, 1932 is briefly redescribed, rediagnosed, and shown to be an oligotypic genus endemic to southern India and distinct from the particularly similar genus Pyrgodesmus Pocock, 1892, monobasic and endemic to Sri Lanka, by several important features of peripheral and, especially, gonopodal structure. A new species, Klimakodesmus bilobocaudatus sp. nov., is described from Kerala state, India, differing from the sole accepted, and type species K. gravelyi Carl, 1932, from Tamil Nadu state, primarily by the laterally trilobate paraterga, the caudally more deeply bilobate mid-dorsal keel on ring 19, and certain minor details of the gonopodal structure.
 
Keywords: Myriapoda, Klimakodesmus, Pyrgodesmus, taxonomy, new species, India, Sri Lanka

Klimakodesmus bilobocaudatus sp. nov.
Anterior parts of body, dorsal, ventral and lateral views, respectively.

Klimakodesmus bilobocaudatus sp. nov.
1. Natural microhabitat (rotting wood with a colony on the surface, photographed not to scale). 2. Adult male paratype, dorsal view. 3. Subadult female paratype, lateral view. 4. Adult male paratype, ventral view.


Mathilakath Dasan Aswathy, Sergei I. Golovatch and Ambalaparambil Vasu Sudhikumar. 2021. The Millipede Genus Klimakodesmus Carl, 1932, with the Description of A New Species from Kerala State, southern India (Diplopoda, Polydesmida, Pyrgodesmidae). Zootaxa. 4980(2); 373-382. DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4980.2.8