Hessebius longispinipes Ma, Pei & Zhu 2009

2. Hessebius longispinipes Ma, Pei & Zhu, 2009

Ma, Pei & Zhu 2009: 195, figs 1–7.

Diagnosis. Body length 10.7–12.6 mm, antennae composed of 17–19 articles, commonly 18+18; 6 ocelli on each side arranged in 2 horizontal rows; Tömösváry’s organ moderately large, rounded, almost equal to the adjoining ocelli; 2+2 moderately small sharp coxosternal teeth; porodont feebly slender, posterolateral to lateral tooth; all tergites without sharp posterior triangular projections; legs 14 and 15 thicker than anterior ones in female, still more in male; coxal pores 2–5, ovate to round, arranged in one row; female gonopods with 2+2 moderately thick, bullet–shaped spurs, second article with a long terminal thorn pointing backwards; apical claw simple, with two unconspicuous basal lateral denticles; male gonopods short and small, only a small hemispherical bulge, with 2 long setae on the surface, tip slightly sclerotised.

Spinulation. Owing to a misprint, legs spinulation of H. longispinipes was not been included in the original description of this species (Ma et al. 2009). This data is reported here as in Tab. 2.

C t P F T C t P F T 1–6 – – p amp am – – (a)p ap ap 7–8 – – p amp am – – ap ap ap 9–10 – – p amp am a – ap ap ap 11 – – p amp am a – amp ap ap 12–13 – – p amp am a – amp p p 14 – m amp am a a – amp p p 15 – m amp am – a – amp p – Distribution. Only known from the type locality: China, Barkor County, Hami City, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, 43°06'N 93°00'E (Ma et al. 2009).

Ecological notes. The species was collected in taiga; it inhabits moderately moist and abundant in organic matter soil; under stones, at 3770 m above sea level.

Remarks. In a paper on Mongolian centipedes, Loksa (1978) described the new species Schizotergitius styliferus, based on material from “Bajanchongor aimak [= province]: Cagen Bodg ul Gebirge, Quelle Toorin bulag, 13 km O vom Grenzposten Caganbulag im Cagan Bogd ul Gebirge, 1500 m ” (1 Ƥ, Holotypus) and “Gobi Altaj aimak [= province]: zwischen Schargyn Gobi und Beger nuur, cca 20 km O von Somon Chalium, Chuural cacran, 1700 m ” (1 3, 1 Ƥ, Paratypes), in south-west Mongolia. This species is known only from the type specimens. Although styliferus has been originally assigned to the Central Asiatic genus Schizotergitius Verhoeff, 1930, it clearly belongs to Hessebius Verhoeff, 1941 (new combination) by the shape of the female gonopods (see Loksa 1978: figs 27, 29). The other characters reported in the original description of this species also agree well with the diagnosis of Hessebius here reported and those of Verhoeff (1941) and Zalesskaja (1978).

H. styliferus seems also strictly related to H. longispinipes (Tab. 4) and probably they belong to a same group of species. Both share morphological characters such as the general size, the number and arrangement of the ocelli, the shape of the coxosternum and porodont, the number and shape of the spurs of the female gonopods, the characteristic shape of the dorsal terminal part of the second article of the female gonopods, strongly extending backwards.

They differ in characters such as the number of antennal articles, 17+17–19+ 19 in H. longispinipes, 20+ 20 in H. stilyferus, and in some detail of the spinulation of legs, chiefly the presence of DaC on legs 9–15 in H. longispinipes, on legs 11–15 in H. styliferus, and the VmF in all the legs in H. longispinipes, only in legs 11–14 in H. styliferus. Both characters may show however some variation in Lithobiidae; in Hessebius variation in spinulation has been documented in H. barbipes by Eason (1981) and Negrea & Matic (1995). Worth notice is that the collecting sites of H. styliferus are ca 380 km far one from another and 600 km southwestward from the only locality known of H. longispinipes. Therefore, the relationships between the two taxa deserve further investigation.