Length 18-22 (♂) or 23 mm (♀), width of midbody pro- and metazona 1.1-1.3 and 1.5-1.7 mm (♂), or 1.9 and 2.1 mm (♀), respectively. Holotype ca 22 mm long, width of pro- and metazona 1.3 and 1.6 mm, respectively. Coloration black to light grey-brown (Fig. 1a). Pattern mostly cingulate due to a large light grey band on prozona dorsally in front of stricture extending down until level of paraterga (Fig. 1a, b). Legs light grey-brown. Antennae increasingly infuscate distad, from light brown to blackish (Fig. 1a).

a

b

c

d

Figure 1.

Eustrongylosoma penevi sp. n.

a: ♂ paratype, habitus, lateral view  
b: midbody segments, dorsal view  
c: ♂ paratype 3 segment 10, lateral view. Scale bar: 1.0 mm.  
d: left half of segment 10, dorsal view. Scale bar: 1.0 mm.  

Body submoniliform. Antennomeres 2 to 6 subequal in length, antennae rather short, reaching behind segment 3 (♂) or 2 (♀) when stretched dorsally. Tegument generally smooth and shining. In width, segments 2 and 3 < collum = 4 < 5-17, thereafter body gently tapering towards telson. Paraterga (Fig. 1b, c, d) modestly developed, keel-shaped, set low (at about 1/3^rd of metazonal height), thinner in poreless, thicker in pore-bearing, segments, slightly reaching behind tergal margin only in segments 2 and 17-19, mostly slightly pointed, delimited by a complete and deep sulcus only dorsally, ventral sulcus being incomplete, developed only in posterior quarter to 1/5^th extent. Head densely setose on clypeus and frons, bare on vertex. Collum semilunar, bearing two transverse rows of 2+2 setae, one row along front margin, second row in the middle; lateral edges broadly rounded. Metaterga faintly rugulose, a little more clearly so in postsulcus halves, surface below paraterga microgranular in segments 2-7. Tergal setae rather long, about 1/5^th of metatergal length, arranged in two rows of 2+2 in each, one in front of, second behind sulcus. Sulcus starting from segment 5, deep, almost reaching the bases of paraterga. Stricture between pro- and metazona finely and densely ribbed. Ozopores lying close to caudal end of paraterga in a shallow ovoid groove, lateral, only partly visible from above. Pleurosternal carinae poorly developed ridges visible only in segments 2-4. Seta at about midway of each paratergum mostly broken off. Axial line wanting. Epiproct (Fig. 2a) subtruncate, pre-apical lateral papillae small. Hypoproct (Fig. 2b) semi-circular. Sternal lobe between coxae 4 subtrapeziform, densely setose (Fig. 2c). Legs very long and slender, about 2.0 (♂) or 1.3 (♀) times as long as midbody height; ♂ tarsal brushes traceable until about legs of segment 15, thereafter thinning out.

a

b

c

d

e

f

Figure 2.

Eustrongylosoma penevi sp. n. Scale bar: 1.0 mm.

a: epiproct  
b: hypoproct  
c: sternal lobe between coxae 4, caudal view  
d: right gonopod, mesal view  
e: right gonopod, lateral view  
f: right gonopod, dorsal view  

Gonopods rather simple (Fig. 2d, e, f): coxite long, subcylindrical, bare; prefemoral portion small, about 1/3^rd as long as femorite, the latter slender, ventral lobe somewhat better developed than dorsal one, apicolateral lobe (l) rounded, well developed, with a long transverse spine (s) at base. Solenophore subcircular, with a subterminal lobule.

Most similar to E. exiguum Hoffman, 1978, from Papua New Guinea, and E. kuekenthali (Attems, 1897), from Borneo and Sulawesi, sharing the presence of a prominent distal spine on the gonopod femorite. Different from all congeners by the transverse orientation of the spine and noticeably long legs in the male (Hoffman 1978, Golovatch 1997).

Honours our good friend and colleague Lyubomir Penev, biologist and founder of the Biodiversity Data Journal and Pensoft Publishers.

The species is hitherto known only from its type locality, Mt Polis Checkpoint on the road Banaue – Sagada (Fig. 3), where it was found close to a human settlement, under wooden plates and logs (Fig. 4).

Figure 3.  

Map of Luzon showing the type locality of Eustrongylosoma penevi sp. n. Original map from: Alexander Altenhof (Kater Begemot) via Wikimedia Commons.

Figure 4.  

A view of Mt Polis Checkpoint, the type locality of Eustrongylosoma penevi sp. n. Red arrow indicates the exact place where species was found.

Length ca 33 mm, width of pro- and metazona 2.8 and 3.8 mm, respectively (♂), or 25, 3.0 and 4.0 mm, respectively (♀). Colour pattern highly vivid (Fig. 5), shiny blackish to dark brown, with contrasting yellowish paraterga and the immediately adjacent regions. Paraterga very well-developed, set rather high (about 1/4^th of midbody height) (Fig. 6a), callus wide (Fig. 6b), thicker in pore-bearing paraterga. Pleurosternal carinae longitudinally arched ribs, increasingly poorly developed towards telson to totally disappear in segment 15. Legs only slightly enlarged in male, rather long and slender, about 1.3 (♂) or 0.9 (♀) times as long as midbody height. ♂ legs 5 (Fig. 7a) and 6 with large femoral humps, ♂ femur 7 with a humped process even greater than in leg 6 (Fig. 7b). Epiproct subtruncate (Fig. 6c). Hypoproct roundly subtrapeziform (Fig. 6d). Sternal lamina between ♂ coxae 4 semi-circular (Fig. 6e).

a

b

Figure 5.

Anoplodesmus anthracinus Pocock, ♂.

a: habitus, lateral view  
b: habitus, in situ, dorsal view  

a

b

c

d

e

f

Figure 6.

Anoplodesmus anthracinus Pocock, ♂.

a: segment 10, lateral view. Scale bar: 2.0 mm  
b: left half of segment 10, dorsal view. Scale bar: 2.0 mm  
c: epiproct. Scale bar: 2.0 mm  
d: hypoproct. Scale bar: 2.0 mm  
e: sternal lobe between coxae 4, caudal view. Scale bar: 2.0 mm  
f: right gonopod, mesal view. Scale bar: 1.0 mm  

a

b

Figure 7.

Anoplodesmus anthracinus Pocock, ♂.

a: male leg 5, lateral view  
b: male leg 7, lateral view  

Gonopods very simple (Fig. 6f): coxite with a few strong setae distodorsally, prefemoral part prominent, only slightly shorter than acropodite; femorite with a strong ventral tooth (a), solenophore bipartite, with two apical lobes (b, c), lobe c supporting a short solenomere (sl).

This species was originally described from Yangon (= Rangoon), Myanmar (Pocock 1895). Attems (1937) synonymized it with Jonespeltis splendidus Verhoeff, 1936, from southern India, but Jeekel (1965) revalidated the latter species and returned A. anthracinus to its original scope. Furthermore, Jeekel provided very useful illustrations and a detailed redescription of the species, based on a part of the type series. Hoffman (1973) gave more illustrations of the gonopods, based on a paratype of A. kathanus (Chamberlin, 1921), from Katha, north of Yangon, Myanmar, and synonymized it with A. anthracinus.

Our record of A. anthracinus in the State of Pulau Penang, Malaysia considerably extends the range of this species to the south. The studied sample agrees well with the description provided by Jeekel (1965) and Hoffman (1973) in most characters (Figs 6f, 7), including humps in ♂ femora 5 and 6, as well as a process surmounting a hump in ♂ femur 7. Only slight variations have been noticed in the shapes of paraterga and sternal lobe between ♂ coxae 4. The same can be said about the samples from Sri Lanka which are also identified as A. anthracinus.

These are the first formal records of the species in Malaysia and Sri Lanka (Figs 8, 10). However, actually they might well represent introductions. In fact, in Malaysia the species was observed and collected in a highly agricultural and urbanized area, in close proximity to experimental rice fields (Fig. 9), while in Sri Lanka, the collecting locality is a human settlement.

Figure 8.  

Map of the southern part of Malay Peninsula showing the new locality of Anoplodesmus anthracinus. Original map from Wikimedia Commons.

Figure 9.  

A view of Station MARDI Seberang Perai where A. anthracinus was found.

Figure 10.  

Map of Sri Lanka showing the new locality of Anoplodesmus anthracinus. Original map from: Uwe Dedering, via Wikimedia Commons.

It is noteworthy that Sri Lanka hosts several formal species of Anoplodesmus, nearly all very similar to one another:

• Anoplodesmus saussurii (Humbert, 1865), originally described from Sri Lanka, later recorded also in Fiji and Mauritius (Jeekel 1965, Jeekel 1972, Jeekel 1980a). The only meaningful difference from A. anthracinus is said to lie in the absence of a ventral hump in ♂ femur 5. However, given considerable variation in the presence or absence of this character, when such a hump in A. anthracinus can either be present in or absent from ♂ femur 4 (Attems 1937, Jeekel 1965), its status versus the older name A. saussurii is to be questioned.
• Anoplodesmus luctuosus (Peters, 1864), from Rambodde; A. inornatus (Humbert, 1865), A. layardi (Humbert, 1865), A. thwaitesii (Humbert, 1865) and A. humberti (Carl, 1902), all from Paradeniya; and A. sabulosus Attems, 1898, from Kandy. All of them have been described from Sri Lanka, still known only from that island. Some of these taxa are however dubious, being based on female or even juvenile material, but most could be included into a key (Jeekel 1965). Regrettably, the first couplet in the key is purely geographic, separating the species from Myanmar and Sumatra from those described from Sri Lanka and India (Jeekel 1965). As one can see from the presently known distributions of A. saussurii and A. anthracinus, this distinction does not hold, also strongly suggesting several introductions through human agency. The only feasible solution lies in collecting new and/or spotting topotypic museum samples of the still enigmatic A. inornatus and A. layardi from Paradeniya, and of A. sabulosus from Kandy, to properly compare them to their type material. In addition, bar-coding could help tracing genetic relationships. Last, but not least, a few congeneric species, most of which also very similar to A. anthracinus, are known to occur in southern India as well.
• Since Anoplodesmus is a senior synonym of Paranedyopus (Golovatch 2000, Golovatch 2013), the sole erstwhile component species of the latter genus from Sri Lanka, A. simplex (Humbert, 1865), from Pundaloya (Jeekel 1980c), must be considered as well. However, like any former Paranedyopus species, A. simplex shows reduced paraterga and more elaborate gonopods (Golovatch 2013). In other words, A. simplex is quite distinct from the above congeners from Sri Lanka which all have strongly developed paraterga and highly simple gonopods. In contrast, it seems to be more similar to A. rufocinctus (Carl, 1932) and A. subcylindricus (Carl, 1932), both latter taxa from southern India (Jeekel 1980c).
• Anoplodesmus anthracinus, new to the fauna of Sri Lanka.