A revision of dragon millipedes III: the new genus Gigaxytes gen. nov., with the description of three new species (Diplopoda, Polydesmida, Paradoxosomatidae)

Ruttapon Srisonchai,Henrik Enghoff,Natdanai Likhitrakarn,Somsak Panha

doi:10.5852/ejt.2018.463

Ruttapon Srisonchai, Henrik Enghoff + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.5852/ejt.2018.463

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Abstract

The ‘gigas’ group of dragon millipedes, formerly placed in the genus Desmoxytes Chamberlin, 1923, is revised and assigned to the new genus Gigaxytes gen. nov. Desmoxytes gigas Golovatch & Enghoff, 1994 is the type species of the new genus and is redescribed as G. gigas (Golovatch & Enghoff, 1994) gen. et comb nov. Three new species are described: G. fusca gen et sp. nov. from Thailand and Myanmar; G. parvoterga gen et sp. nov. and G. suratensis gen et sp. nov. from Thailand. All Gigaxytes species are endemic to small distribution areas in limestone habitats in South Thailand and South Myanmar. Illustrations of external morphological characters and an identification key to all known species are provided as well as a distribution map.

Highlights

This is the third in a series of articles about revision of the dragon millipedes, the genus Desmoxytes Chamberlin, 1923, sensu Golovatch & Enghoff (1994)
Four species of the new dragon millipede genus Gigaxytes are here reported for Thailand and Myanmar, of which three are new species to science
All species belonging to the new genus exhibit notable characters: long subspiniform paraterga; three regular rows of cones/spines on metaterga combined with very long caudolateral spines; an Orthomorpha-like shape of the gonopod; postfemoral part poorly developed and a small lamina medialis indistinctly demarcated from a large lamina lateralis

Summary

Introduction

This is the third in a series of articles about revision of the dragon millipedes, the genus Desmoxytes Chamberlin, 1923, sensu Golovatch & Enghoff (1994). According to the approach for splitting the dragon millipedes into several genera outlined by Srisonchai et al (2018a) which was based on morphological and genetic data, we here revise the ‘gigas’ group. One formerly described species, ‘Desmoxytes’ gigas Golovatch & Enghoff, 1994 and three further new species are assigned to the new genus Gigaxytes. The new genus is narrowly distributed only in the Malay Peninsula (Thailand and Myanmar)

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