A strikingly coloured new giant millipede from Vietnam has copycat in Borneo (Diplopoda, Spirostreptida, Harpagophoridae)

Piyatida Pimvichai,Henrik Enghoff,Irina Semenyuk,Nesrine Akkari,Jerôme Constant

doi:10.5852/ejt.2020.722.1129

Abstract

A new giant species of the subfamily Rhynchoproctinae with strikingly bi-coloured, red-yellow legs contrasting with a black body is described: Alienostreptus bicoloripes sp. nov. from Vietnam. The new species is assigned to the genus Alienostreptus Pimvichai, Enghoff & Panha, 2010 hitherto comprising one species, A. alienus (Attems, 1936), and differing from other rhynchoproctine genera by having the femoral spine duplicated. Species of this genus share three synapomorphic characters of the subfamily, viz (1) anterior coxal fold forms deep concavity in posterior view, (2) posterior coxal fold very low, and (3) posterior coxal fold with mesal flap. A superficially very similar colourful species from Borneo, also with bi-coloured legs but clearly not belonging to Alienostreptus due to the position of ventral soft pads on male legs, is documented based on photographs.

Highlights

Most of the large to gigantic millipede species in Southeast Asia belong to the family Harpagophoridae Attems, 1909
Based on new material from Vietnam, we describe a new colourful giant millipede, the second species of the genus Alienostreptus
The present study provides a new diagnosis of the genus in order to include the new species

Summary

Introduction

Most of the large to gigantic millipede species in Southeast Asia belong to the family Harpagophoridae Attems, 1909. Based mainly on gonopodal characters, Jeekel (2006) divided the family into three subfamilies, viz, Harpagophorinae Attems, 1909, Adiaphorostreptinae Hoffman, 1977 and Rhynchoproctinae Demange, 1961. The subfamily Rhynchoproctinae is a monophyletic group sharing three synapomorphic gonopodal characters: anterior coxal fold (ac) forming a deep concavity in posterior view; posterior coxal fold (pc) very low; posterior coxal fold mesally with a ‘flap-like’ process (Pimvichai et al 2010). The subfamily currently includes 35 species in 14 genera (Zhang et al 1997; Jeekel 2006; Pimvichai et al 2010). The majority of species of the subfamily Rhynchoproctinae is distributed in southern China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. A few species are distributed in Borneo, Malacca Peninsula, Sumatra, Sunda Islands and as far south as Lombok

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