Abstract
A new millipede species of the genus Sechelleptus Mauriès, 1980 is described and illustrated from Mayotte Island, Indian Ocean. This new species, S. arborivagus sp. nov., found on trees, looks particularly similar to the sympatric S. variabilis VandenSpiegel & Golovatch, 2007, but is much larger and has a very different ecological behavior. Phylogenetic analyses based on a concatenated dataset of the COI and 16S rRNA genes and including nine species of Spirostreptidae (including Sechelleptus, Doratogonus Attems, 1914, Bicoxidens Attems, 1928 and Spirostreptus Brandt, 1833), strongly support the monophyly of Sechelleptus. Despite the similarity of their genitalia, the molecular analyses also reveal a clear-cut genetic divergence between S. arborivagus sp. nov. and S. variabilis (22.55% for COI and 6.63% for 16SrRNA) and further suggest the presence of a higher diversity within the genus Sechelleptus on Mayotte.
Highlights
The genus Sechelleptus Mauriès, 1980, a senior synonym of Rubanostreptus Krabbe, 1982 (Jeekel 1999), was erected by Mauriès (1980) to reassign Iulus seychellarum originally described by Desjardins (1835) from a specimen collected in the Seychelles
The genus Sechelleptus represented here by S. variabilis, S. arborivagus sp. nov. and an undetermined species (i.e., DU1, a sub-adult female collected at Mont Combani on Mayotte) is strongly recovered as monophyletic in all analyses and appears sister to an unidentified dipoplod from Madagascar
The mean inter-specific distance values (14.9% for c oxidase subunit I (COI) and 5.1% for 16S) were remarkably similar to previous studies that reported the presence of high genetic divergence among population of different spirostreptid species (Mwabvu et al 2013, 2015), suggesting the existence of more than one species in those taxa
Summary
The genus Sechelleptus Mauriès, 1980, a senior synonym of Rubanostreptus Krabbe, 1982 (Jeekel 1999), was erected by Mauriès (1980) to reassign Iulus seychellarum originally described by Desjardins (1835) from a specimen collected in the Seychelles. Appears to have a wider distribution ranging from East Africa to Madagascar and species of the same genus have been observed in Tanzania (Enghoff et al 2016), Mauritius and Zanzibar (Jeekel 1999), and the Comoros (VandenSpiegel & Golovatch 2007). The authors described a new species of Sechelleptus, i.e., S. variabilis VandenSpiegel & Golovatch, 2007, and mentioned the presence of another putative congener. They were unable to assign the single female specimen found to a formal species. Based on its appearance and peripheral characters, the unknown female was at least assigned to the genus Sechelleptus (VandenSpiegel & Golovatch 2007)
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