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Type: Article
Published: 2002-12-12
Page range: 1–6
Abstract views: 33
PDF downloaded: 4

Redescription of the milliped Myrmecodesmus mundus (Chamberlin) (Polydesmida: Pyrgodesmidae)

Research Lab., North Carolina State Museum of Natural Sciences, 4301 Reedy Creek Rd., Raleigh, North Carolina 27607 USA
Myriapoda Myrmecodesmus mundus gonopod telopodite prefemoral process

Abstract

Myrmecodesmus mundus (Chamberlin, 1943), a minute pygrodesmid milliped from Veracruz, Mexico, is redescribed with high magnification drawings of the gonopods of the type specimens. Significant differences appear to exist between the gonopods of the holotype and paratypes, and the latter may warrant recognition as a separate species. The basic gonopodal pattern is similar to that of an undescribed, small-bodied congener occurring some 800 mi (1,280 km) to the north in Texas, USA, and the species appear to be related. The general features of a species group of Myrmecodesmus may be beginning to emerge small-bodied forms with curvilinear telopodites, with or without elaborations, and divided prefemoral processes in which the caudal or anterior branch may be lost. The name Eirenyma Chamberlin, 1943, is available for such an entity.

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