A new species of Newportia Gervais, 1847 from Puerto Rico, with a revised key to the species of the genus (Chilopoda, Scolopendromorpha, Scolopocryptopidae)

Abstract A new species of the centipede genus Newportia, Newportia stoevi sp. n., is described from Rio Encantado Cave, Puerto Rico. It differs from all congeners by having sternites distinctly margined laterally and ultimate legs bearing 4 spinous processes on both prefemur and femur, and 2 on tibia. The value of some terms used in the taxonomy of the genus have been analyzed and an amended identification key to the species of Newportia is provided.


Introduction
The genus Newportia Gervais, 1847 is still poorly known. It is especially so with regards to the Puerto Rican fauna where only two species have hitherto been registered. Silvestri (1908) reported N. ernsti Pocock, 1891 from Coamo Springs, while Chagas and Shelley (2003) recorded N. heteropoda Chamberlin, 1918 from two localities -8.4 mi (13.4 km) SW Luquillo, trail to Minas Falls off hwy. 191, Luquillo Division, Carib-bean National Forest and from 4 mi (6.4 km) N Villalba, Dona Juaña Recreation Area. To these should be added Chamberlin's (1950) uncertain record of Newportia sp. from Maricao Insular Forest, based on a specimen with missing ultimate legs.
Herewith, I describe a new species of Newportia recently collected in Puerto Rico by Dr Petar Beron from the National Museum of Natural History, Sofia (NMNHS). The specimen was assigned to Newportia and tentatively identified as a new species by Dr Pavel Stoev, curator of Myriapoda at the NMNHS who committed it for further study to me. This specimen differs from all congeners, in the first place, by important traits of the ultimate legs (which are normally developed and have no traces of regeneration) and unusually developed lateral margination of sternites.
The identification key to the species of Newportia (Schileyko and Minelli 1998) has been updated to accommodate this and other new species described recently (e.g., Newportia troglobia Chagas & Shelley, 2003), as well as to reflect other nomenclature novelties proposed in the genus. Some general notes on the external anatomy of Newportia have been made, too. The terminology follows Bonato et al. (2010). Diagnosis. Tergite 1 with rounded anterior transverse suture and incomplete paramedian sutures. Sternites distinctly margined laterally. Ultimate legs: prefemur with 4, femur with 3 small spinous processes medially and 1 ventrally; tibia with 2 small spinous processes medially. Tarsus 1 large and clavate (bulbous), clearly differing from the much thinner tarsus 2; the latter consisting of 19-20 articles.
Description. Length of body ca 17 mm, length of ultimate legs about 9 mm. Color (in ethanol): entire animal uniformly light-yellow with cephalic plate and forcipular segment slightly darker (Fig. 1). Body sparsely pilose; sternites and legs less setose than tergites.
Antennae composed of 17 articles (Fig. 2), reaching rear edge of tergite 5 when folded backwards; 2.5 basal antennal articles covered by a few long setae, subsequent articles densely pilose. Basal antennal articles somewhat flattened dorso-ventrally. Head: cephalic plate visibly longer than wide, with rounded corners and very short paramedian sutures at posterior margin.
Second maxillae: as in all other Newportia species but dorsal spur on article 2 of the telopodite not recognisable. Pretarsus without spurs, with well-developed dorsal brush. The angle between the longitudinal axes of pretarsus and article 3 of telopodite slightly more than 100° (Fig. 3), which is quite unusual condition in Scolopendromorpha.
Legs: prefemur, femur and tibia with a few large setae (Fig. 5); tarsi with more numerous setae of various length and size. Tibia of legs 1-20 with a lateral spur; both, ventral tibial spur and tarsal spur absent. Tarsi of legs 1-21 ( Fig. 5) without distinct division between tarsus 1 and 2; pretarsi long, thin and sharply pointed. Pretarsi of legs 1-22 with two thin and long (as long as 1/2 of pretarsus) accessory spines.
Coxopleuron (Figs 6, 7): nearly completely pierced with coxal pores of various size -only coxopleural process and a narrow area bordering posterior margin of coxopleuron remaining poreless. Coxopleural process (Figs 6, 7) as long as ultimate sternite, conical, without additional spines. Coxopleural surface without setae. Posterior margin of pleuron of ultimate leg-bearing segment forming a very obtuse angle.
companied by a single long ventral seta. Tibia practically as long as prefemur or femur. Tarsus well divided into tarsus 1 and tarsus 2 (Fig. 8), former as long as 1/2 of tibia. Tarsus 1 (Figs 8-10) is enlarged and clavate (bulbous); tarsus 2 thin, consisting of 19 (or 20) articles (Fig. 8). In a few places annulation of tarsus 2 is somewhat vague; for example, the very long ultimate article seems to consist of two articles, which are not well divided. Ultimate legs without pretarsus.
Range. The species is hitherto known only from its type locality.
Habitat and associated fauna. Being -250 m deep and 16 910 m long Rio Encantado is the deepest and the longest cave system in Puerto Rico. This system lies in the Tertiary limestone area which stretches along the northern coast of the island (Peck 1974). N. stoevi has been collected deep inside the cave, in the aphotoc zone and although apparent troglomorphic traits are lacking it may well represent a troglobite, as its congener from Sistema de Purificacion, Mexico, N. troglobia (Chagas and Shelley 2003). In the cave it co-occurs with amblypigs, spiders, beetles (Dr. P. Beron, pers. comm.). berlin, 1921 (see REMARKS to N. albana andFigure 5c of N. diagramma in Schileyko andMinelli 1998). 5 In some species of Newportia legs have one tarsal spur and two (lateral and ventral) tibial spurs, other species have one (lateral) tibial spur only (as N. stoevi) and in N. phoretha Chamberlin, 1950 spurs are entirely lacking (see p. 290 in Schileyko and Minelli 1998). In some species of Newportia (for example in N. longitarsis stechowi Verhoeff, 1938) lateral tibial spur is situated on an outgrowth of disto-lateral side of the tibia (see Fig. 2a in Schileyko and Minelli 1998). It is also worth mentioning that tibial spurs do not break off easily in Newportia as these spurs would do, for example, in Otostigmus. Absence of tibial spurs is another character that separates Ectonocryptopinae from Newportiinae.

Identification key to the species of Newportia
One of the main problems for identification of scolopendromorph centipedes is the high number of new species, described in the last decades that are still remaining outside the contemporary identification keys. I suggest that every description of new species in large genera (like Newportia) to be accompanied by the respective update of the available identification key. In cases where the genus includes just a few species, the identification key should be completely re-written. The most recent key to the species of Newportia was provided by Schileyko and Minelli (1998). Since then several new species have been described by González-Sponga (1997, 2000 and Chagas and Shelley (2003) from Venezuela and Mexico, respectively. The latter authors have also revived N. azteca Humbert & Saussure, 1869, although in the same paper they also stated (pp. 13-14): "We … do not think that any conclusion [about the validity of azteca] can be reached". In 1998 Schileyko and Minelli wrote (p. 291): "Another nominal taxon very similar if not identical to N. oriena and N. spinipes seems to be N. azteca Humbert & Saussure, 1869: 158 [cf. Attems, 1930: 275] whose true identity, however, remains to us as doubtful as it was to Attems [1930]". However, Chagas and Shelley (2003) were absolutely correct when writing (p. 13) that N. azteca is the third oldest name in Newportia (after N. longitarsis and N. mexicana) and in case of synonymy would have priority by 27 years over N. spinipes. Since there is no available characters at the moment to separate these two species I put them together in the following identification key. Both, N. stoevi sp. n. and N. troglobia, are included in the key provided below. With regards to the seventeen new species of Newportia described from Venezuela by González-Sponga (1997, 2000, they will be analyzed in a paper dedicated to the scolopendromorph fauna of Venezuela that is currently in progress. Ultimate leg with a well-developed (claw-shaped) pretarsus which is as long as, or longer than half of the ultimate article of tarsus 2 (Fig. 12)  Tergite 1 with a rounded anterior transverse suture and, generally, with paramedian sutures which do not form a "W" just behind the anterior transverse suture; in a few species these sutures are absent or extremely short (Fig. 13) ... 5 -Tergite 1 with an anterior transverse suture in the form of a very obtuse angle and with paramedian sutures forked anteriorly, thus forming a "W" just behind the anterior transverse suture (Fig. 14)  Anterior ends of the half-complete paramedian sutures of tergite 1 very shortly bifurcate behind the anterior transverse suture (Fig. 16)  Femur of ultimate legs with 4 spinous processes, tibia with 2 spinous processes (Figs 9, 10) tarsus 2 of 19 articles (Fig. 8)  Tarsus of ultimate legs composed of uniform articles (Fig. 18) .................27 -Tarsus 1 and tarsus 2 of ultimate legs with different shapes (Fig. 19) ........29 27 Tergite 1 with paramedian sutures in front of the anterior transverse suture (Fig. 14); tibia of ultimate legs cylindrical, tarsus composed of 7-9 articles (Fig. 18)  Tergite 1 without paramedian sutures between its posterior margin and the anterior transverse suture, rarely with very short tracks just behind the anterior transverse suture (Fig. 13) Chamberlin, 1922 22 Cephalic plate and tergites 1-3, dorsal view (after Chamberlin 1922, re-drawn); (ats) -anterior transverse suture, (ps) -paramedian suture, (t) -tibia, (t1) -tarsus 1, (t2) -tarsus 2.