Description

Description. Male / female approximate measurements: length 10 / 11 mm, ring 12 paranota width 0.9 / 1.0 mm. Live colour very pale yellow with sparse, reddish mottling and reticulation on metatergites, mainly along posterior margin, antennae light brown and head pinkish-red dorsally; in alcohol, pale yellowish-brown or completely decoloured. Male as for T. armatum in most non-gonopod details, but overall widths tergite 6> head> 5> 4> (3,2)> collum, antennomere 3 longest, leg 6 tarsus 1.5 × as long as femur, femur longer than prefemur, prefemoral swellings not apparent posterior to ring 11. Ring 12 paranota 1.3 × as wide as prozonite; paranotum with distinct shoulder anteriorly, almost quadrate, lateral margin almost straight; metatergite almost completely covered with three transverse rows of 10 – 12 large, very low tubercles, each with small seta near posterior edge, but tubercles hard to detect with light microscopy. Ring 6 ster- Figure | 7. Tasmaniosoma gerdiorivum sp. n., paratype males ex QVM 23: 46675. A Posterior view of gonopods in situ B medial view of left gonopod telopodite. Setation not shown in B dashed line marks course of prostatic groove. Scale bars = 0.1 mm. In A, the bends in the three flattened terminal processes are a preparation artifact; in wet specimens the bent portions seen in (A) are nearly planar. nite as for T. armatum but with marginal band of fine setae along anterior edge of sternite; at high magnification, band is seen to consist of four evenly spaced, loose clusters. Gonopod telopodite (Fig. 17) straight, stout, slightly flattened anteroposteriorly; base extended posteriorly and laterally as shelf, concave upwards, with thickened margin; anterior surface with gently convex medial extension at ca 1 / 2 telopodite height. Telopodite divided at ca 3 / 4 height into four processes: (a) mediolaterally flattened, tab-like solenomere arising medially, the distal edge subtriangular; (b) anteroposteriorly flattened process arising just lateral to solenomere with acute apex and short, shelf-like posterior extension at base; (c) long, blade-like, bluntly acute, mediolaterally flattened anterolateral process; (d) rod-like, acute process arising just anterolateral to anterolateral process. Sparse tract of fine setae running from basal shelf anterodistally to ca 1 / 2 telopodite height on lateral surface; a few fine setae on posterolateral surface at ca 1 / 2 telopodite height. Prostatic groove running on medial surface more or less directly to solenomere base and terminating at apex of triangle on distal solenomere edge. Female with posterior margin of epigynum produced as rectangular process almost as long as posterior margin.

Common Names

Taxonomic Hierarchy

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Arthropoda

Class: Diplopoda

Order: Polydesmida

Family: Dalodesmidae

Genus: Tasmaniosoma

Species: Tasmaniosoma gerdiorivum Mesibov, 2010