Description

Description. Male / female approximate measurements: length 16 / 16 mm, ring 12 paranota width 2.1 / 1.9 mm. Live colour not known; in alcohol, uniformly pale yellowish brown or decoloured. Male as for T. armatum in most non-gonopod details, but overall widths tergite 6> 5> 4> 3> (2, head)> collum, antennomere 3 longest, ring 12 paranota 1.4 × as wide as prozonite. Ring 6 sternite as for T. armatum, but with very short, thin sternal tab by leg 6, not bearing setae. Gonopod telopodite (Fig. 18 B) straight, tapering distally, somewhat constricted just above base, posteriorly thickened as ridge running distally, divided above ca 2 / 3 telopodite height into cluster of six processes: (a) medial, rod-like, acuminate process directed distally and slightly anteriorly; (b) medial, flattened process with expanded tip and fimbriate distal margin, directed posterodistally; (c) medial, slen- der solenomere bent posteriorly near tip; (d) large, mediolaterally flattened laminate process with curved margin, broken posteriorly by U-shaped notch, the distal border of notch slightly extended and acute; (e) anterior lateral process rod-like, directed anterolaterally, tip slightly flattened and minutely toothed; (f) posterior lateral process rod-like, acuminate, directed posterodistally. Sparse, fine setae running from base distally on lateral side of posterior ridge to ca 1 / 3 telopodite height; mid-lateral, longitudinal line of 3 – 4 fine setae; 30 – 40 stout, rod-like setae from ca 1 / 3 to 2 / 3 telopodite height on posteromedial surface. Prostatic groove running on medial surface more or less directly to solenomere base, curving slightly around base of medial process with fimbriate tip. (Note: Fig. 18 B is a reconstruction drawn from a paratype and modified using the holotype. None of the three available males has undamaged gonopods, and the stout, rod-like setae are almost all broken off, detectable only as large setal sockets.) Female with posterior margin of epigynum raised medially as large, rounded triangle with irregular edge.

Common Names

Taxonomic Hierarchy

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Arthropoda

Class: Diplopoda

Order: Polydesmida

Family: Dalodesmidae

Genus: Tasmaniosoma

Species: Tasmaniosoma maria Mesibov, 2010