A new genus and species of dalodesmid millipede from New South Wales, Australia (Diplopoda, Polydesmida, Dalodesmidae)

Abstract Cernethia inopinata gen. n., sp. n. is described from highland New South Wales. Like other dalodesmids the new species has numerous sphaerotrichomes on the legs of adult males, but Cernethia inopinata sp. n. shares several character states with Tasmanian species in the genera Noteremus Mesibov, 2009, Paredrodesmus Mesibov, 2003 and Procophorella Mesibov, 2003, which lack sphaerotrichomes and have not yet been assigned to family within the suborder Dalodesmoidea.


Introduction
When establishing the new genus Noteremus from Tasmania (Mesibov 2009), it was suggested that Noteremus and two other dalodesmoid Tasmanian genera, Paredrodesmus Mesibov, 2003 andProcophorella Mesibov, 2003, might form a natural group. Species in all three genera have a head+19 rings body plan, reduced paranota (absent in Paredrodesmus), the unusual pore formula 5+7-18, a trapezoidal array of spinnerets (ventral pair further apart than dorsal pair) and no sphaerotrichomes on the legs of adult males. The lack of sphaerotrichomes led to the place ment of the three genera in the suborder Dalodesmidea without a family assignment.
Here a new species from highland New South Wales is described, which shares the first four of those character states, but unexpectedly has sphaerotrichomes on the tarsus and tibia of most legs. The gonopod conformation is also distinctive, and the telopodite lacks the clusters of stout, rod-like setae found in the two named Noteremus species and five of the six named Paredrodesmus species.
The new species is placed in a new genus in Dalodesmidae. The relationships of the new genus, Noteremus, Paredrodesmus and Procophorella to each other and to more typical Australian Dalodesmidae remain a puzzle.

Materials and methods
'Male' and 'female' in the text refer to adult (stadium 7) individuals. Body measurements were estimated with a Nikon SMZ800 binocular dissecting microscope using an eyepiece scale. Colour images were manually stacked using a Canon EOS 1000D digital SLR camera mounted on the Nikon SMZ800 fitted with a beam splitter, then processed with Zerene Stacker 1.04. Gonopods were cleared in 80% lactic acid and temporarily mounted in a 1:1 glycerol:water mixture for optical microscopy. Preliminary gonopod drawings were traced from prints of screenshots from the output of a 1.3 megapixel digital video eyepiece camera mounted in one ocular tube of a Tasco LMSMB binocular microscope. Images and drawings were prepared for publication using GIMP 2.8.
Locality details for specimen lots (also available online in Mesibov 2006Mesibov -2015 are given with latitude and longitude converted to decimal degrees based on the WGS84 datum. My estimate of the uncertainty for a locality is the radius of a circle around the given position, in metres or kilometres. The ANIC georeferences come from the ANIC collection database.
Description. As for the type species. Name. Anagram of 'Catherine', for the millipede specialist Catherine Car, collector of the type specimens; gender feminine. Description. Male and female adults with head+19 rings (Fig. 1A). Male/female approximate measurements: length 16/14 mm, maximum width across paranota 1.7/1.9 mm, maximum prozonite width 1.3/1.7 mm. In alcohol, well-coloured specimens yellowish brown with faintly reddish brown antennae, distal podomeres and lateral paranotal margins; some specimens with larger reddish-brown patches elsewhere, but patterning inconsistent.
Gonocoxae short, truncated-conical, incompletely fused anteriorly in syncoxite, sparse setae on posterolateral and anteromedial surfaces. Cannula swollen at base, tapering abruptly and looping tightly to enter base of telopodite towards medial side. Telopodite (Figs 2B, 3) with cylindrical base, tapering from ca. 1/4 telopodite height, the main portion divided at ca. 3/4 telopodite height into two closely appressed processes: mediolaterally flattened solenomere with rounded tip and rounded subapical projection on posterior margin, and bluntly acuminate anteromedial process, slightly shorter than solenomere. Just basal to this telopodite division (i.e., just under 3/4 telopodite height), a small, finger-like, blunt process arising on posterolateral telopodite surface curving basally and posteromedially. Large, more or less flat process arising anteromedially, closely appressed to medial telopodite surface, directed distally and slightly posteriorly, curving slightly laterally to lie just medial and posterior to solenomere; apex laminar, slightly expanded with broadly rounded distal margin, terminating at about solenomere height; small tooth on anterior edge of process at ca. 2/3 process length (ca. 3/4 telopodite height). Sparse, long setae on posterior telopodite surface from base to just basal to level of short, finger-like process. Prostatic groove running more or less straight to tip of solenomere, posterior to base of large medial process.
Distribution. So far known only from high-elevation, open eucalypt forest and rainforest in the southeastern corner of the Monaro Tablelands in New South Wales (Fig. 4). The climate in the C. inopinata sp. n. range is cool temperate but fairly dry, with a mean annual rainfall at nearby Nimmitabel (1075 m a.s.l.) of 687 mm, welldistributed through the year, and mean temperature minima and maxima of ca. -1.5 °C and 8 °C in June and July and ca. 9 °C and 22 °C in January and February (http:// www.bom.gov.au/climate/averages/tables/cw_070067.shtml; accessed 13 June 2015). Snow patches lie on the ground in the open forest in the winter months.
Remarks. The gonopod in C. inopinata sp. n. resembles the gonopods of some species of Gephyrodesmus Jeekel, 1983and Orthorhachis Jeekel, 1985(Mesibov 2008  in having two large, closely appressed branches at the end of a strongly tapering telopodite. In all species of Orthorhachis the major branching occurs at more than half the telopodite height, in C. inopinata sp. n. and all species of Gephyrodesmus at onethird or less the telopodite height. Cernethia inopinata sp. n. differs from Gephyrodesmus species in having an apically divided solenomere, as opposed to an undivided one. Gephyrodesmus and Orthorhachis species also differ from C. inopinata sp. n. in having a head+20 rings body plan, wide paranota and a square spinnerets array.
The type specimens of C. inopinata sp. n. were first examined in 2007, not long after they were collected. The samples smelled strongly at the time with an odour similar to that of the acrid defensive secretions of Tasmanian Atalopharetra and Bromodesmus species. The samples have had several changes of alcohol since 2007 and no longer have a strong odour.