Corresponding author: Robert Mesibov (
Academic editor: D. V.anden Spiegel
Mesibov R (2019) A new and cryptic species of
The genus
The new
Pitfall traps were set and emptied by Michael Driessen of the Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment (
The pitfall traps were set on Ritters Plain (Fig.
Millipedes and other invertebrates in the traps were sorted for
I searched the Ritters Plain pitfall area and the nearby grassy sedgeland and subalpine forest unsuccessfully for fresh material of the new
All specimens of the new
Specimen locality data are provided in Supplement material 1 in Darwin Core format. Pitfall trap locations were provided by Michael Driessen as a site map based on a georegistered aerial photograph (see Fig.
The terminology of gonopod telopodite parts follows
Repositories, institutional acronyms, or institutional abbreviations:
Twelve specimens of a new
Ritters Plain pitfall area and surrounds
As mentioned in the Materials and methods section, I found no
AUSTRALIA • male; Tasmania, Central Plateau, Ritters Plain; [
AUSTRALIA • male; same data as for holotype; dissected;
5 males, 4 females and 1 stadium 7 female, same locality as holotype; see Supplement material 1 for details.
Distinguished from all other known
Male/female approximate measurements: length 15/20 mm, midbody vertical diameter 1.3/1.6 mm, midbody width across paranota 1.7/1.7 mm. Colour in alcohol almost uniformly pale, antennae roseate (Fig.
Male with clypeus and frons moderately setose, vertex sparsely setose. Antennal sockets separated by ca. 2.5X socket diameter. Antenna short, just reaching ring 3 when manipulated backwards; relative length of antennomeres 6 > (2,3) > (4,5), antennomere 6 widest. Head approx. as wide as tergite 4, cardines in dorsal view quadrate in outline; collum narrower than head and tergite 2; anterior collum margin gently convex, curvature extending smoothly to slightly convex lateral margin; posterior margin more or less straight; corners bluntly pointed. Tergite width increasing gradually from rings 2–6, then subequal, then decreasing 17–19. Waist pronounced (Fig.
Gonopore small, opening mediodistally on only slightly enlarged leg 2 coxa. Bases of legs 6 and 7 well-separated by shallowly concave sternite, bases of legs 5 closer; brushes of sparse, long setae on sternites just medial to coxae of legs 5, 6, 7. Aperture ovoid, wider than long, ca. 1/2 width of ring 7 prozonite, rim slightly raised laterally and posteriorly.
Gonopods: Gonocoxae truncate-conical, lightly joined distomedially. Telopodite (Figs
Female closely resembling male but stouter. Genital aperture with posterior margin gently convex medially; cyphopods not examined.
Latin
So far known only from Ritters Plain near Lake Mackenzie in northwest Tasmania (Figs
Ritters Plain is almost entirely treeless (Fig.
There are no above-ground shelters near the pitfall traps in which
The densest populations of millipedes I found by searching on Ritters Plain were in surface peat associated with elevated
I collected repeatedly above ca. 1000 m in the Lake Mackenzie area in the period 1985-2007, finding the polydesmidans
If
I thank Michael Driessen (Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment, Tasmania) and Kevin Bonham (Hobart, Tasmania) for the specimens of
Specimen data for
occurrence
Data file Specimen_data_Lissodesmus_piscator_2019.tsv for 12 specimen lots of