Abstract
In addition to one of the two species of Trichopolydesmidae hitherto recorded from Cameroon, Polydesmusintegratus Porat, 1894, which is revised based on type material and shown to represent the genus Hemisphaeroparia Schubart, 1955, comb. n., 12 new species from the same genus are described from that country: H.zamakoesp. n., H.bangoulapsp. n., H.spinigersp. n., H.ongotsp. n., H.digitifersp. n., H.parvasp. n., H.fuscasp. n., H.bonakandasp. n., H.bamboutossp. n., H.subfalcatasp. n., H.falcatasp. n. and H.mouankosp. n. A key to all 13 species (of Hemisphaeroparia) known to occur in Cameroon is presented, and their distributions are mapped. All ten recognizable (but excluding two dubious) Afrotropical genera or subgenera of Trichopolydesmidae are rediagnosed and reclassified, based both on their type species and a presumed scenario of gonopodal evolution. As a result, the number of accepted genera is reduced to five: Sphaeroparia Attems, 1909 (= Megaloparia Brolemann, 1920), Physetoparia Brolemann, 1920 (= Elgonicola Attems, 1939, syn. n., = Mabocus Chamberlin, 1951, syn. n., = Heterosphaeroparia Schubart, 1955, syn. n.}, Eburodesmus Schubart, 1955, Mecistoparia Brolemann, 1926 (= Dendrobrachypus Verhoeff, 1941, syn. n.), and Hemisphaeroparia.
Highlights
The millipede family Trichopolydesmidae, not long ago largely referred to as Fuhrmannodesmidae, a group that mainly included tropical taxa (e.g., Hoffman 1980, Golovatch 1994, Mauriès and Heymer 1996) as opposed to the originally Mediterranean Trichopolydesmidae, presently contains ca. 140 species from ca. 75 genera, mainly across the Northern Hemisphere, both temperate and, especially, tropical (Golovatch 2013, Golovatch and Enghoff 2015)
Because of the small to very small bodies (3–20 mm long), regional tropical faunas of Trichopolydesmidae are poorly known. This fully applies to the Afrotropical realm which, based on the latest review of the mainland fauna (Mauriès and Heymer 1996) and updated here using the available information about adjacent insular faunas (Golovatch and Korsós 1992, Mauriès and Geoffroy 1999, Golovatch and Gerlach 2010), contains only two accepted genera (Bactrodesmus Cook, 1896 and Sphaeroparia Attems, 1909) and ca. 40 species
Most of the material treated here derives from the collection of the Musée Royal de l’Afrique Centrale (MRAC), Tervuren, Belgium, with only a few duplicates retained for the collections of the University of Yaounde 1 (UY1) and the second author
Summary
The millipede family Trichopolydesmidae, not long ago largely referred to as Fuhrmannodesmidae, a group that mainly included tropical taxa (e.g., Hoffman 1980, Golovatch 1994, Mauriès and Heymer 1996) as opposed to the originally Mediterranean Trichopolydesmidae, presently contains ca. 140 species from ca. 75 genera, mainly across the Northern Hemisphere, both temperate and, especially, tropical (Golovatch 2013, Golovatch and Enghoff 2015). Because of the small to very small bodies (3–20 mm long), regional tropical faunas of Trichopolydesmidae are poorly known. This fully applies to the Afrotropical realm which, based on the latest review of the mainland fauna (Mauriès and Heymer 1996) and updated here using the available information about adjacent insular faunas (Golovatch and Korsós 1992, Mauriès and Geoffroy 1999, Golovatch and Gerlach 2010), contains only two accepted genera (Bactrodesmus Cook, 1896 and Sphaeroparia Attems, 1909) and ca. A new generic classification of the Afrotropical trichopolydesmids is proposed, a key to and a map of all trichopolydesmids currently known to occur in Cameroon are given
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