Genus Pandirodesmus Silvestri, 1932

Pandirodesmus Silvestri, 1932: 1 (first description, in Latin); Jeekel 1971: 342 (in genus catalogue); Hoffman 1975: 143 (on the systematic affinities with Trachelodesmini); 1980: 153 (in genus catalogue); Adis & Golovatch 2000: 98 (notes on the morphology of the spiracles and legs); Enghoff et al. 2015: 395 (in taxonomic overview); Shelley & Smith 2015: 3 (brief overview for a description of P. rutherfordi); VandenSpiegel et al. 2022: 568 (brief overview); Suriel et al. 2024: 253 (in a list of Chelodesmidae from the Antilles and Bahamas).

Type species: P. disparipes Silvestri, 1932, by monotypy.

Diagnosis. (modified after Shelley & Smith (2015) and VandenSpiegel et al. (2022)).

A genus of small-bodied (ca. 13 mm) Chelodesminae, characterized by a lightly sclerotized, smooth exoskeleton ranging from white (troglobitic species) to greyish white, and by alternating long and short legs. The exposed parts usually covered with densely cemented, yet loosely attached, sand grains that impart a dark beige to black coloration and conceal the setae. Metaterga narrow, without sulci, but possibly with concave microsculptures, each metatergum with a pair of moderately large, subconical/digitiform projections, with ozopores opening subapically on some of the latter. Paraterga absent. Spiracles opening apically on slender, inconspicuous tubules narrowly segregated from, and slightly shorter than, adjacent coxae. Generally, with anterior legs longer and arising ventrolaterad, posterior legs shorter and arising submediad, anterior halves of sterna thus broader than caudal halves; leg lengths alternating along most of body length, posterior pair ~2/3 as long as anterior on rings 5–18; femora and tarsi substantially longer than remaining podomeres on all legs, postfemora short, swollen and nodular, articulating extremities of tibiae and tarsi also swollen and nodular (less evident in P. zogbiae sp. nov.). Claws narrow and “pin-like”, barely discernible, obscured by long, filiform setae. Setae on coxae to proximal end of tarsi ramose and dendritic apically (with the exception to P. zogbiae sp. nov.). Gonopods minute; coxae with or without apophyses, joined by a strong and distinct sternum; telopodite triramous, prefemoral process (medialmost) expanded, folded, and laminate, partly enveloping other branches, primary branch (lateralmost) long, curving broadly mediad and partly overhanging other branches, terminating in a thin, simple point bearing the solenomere or divided distad into a medial solenomere and a subequal tibiotarsus; secondary (inner) branch suberect, narrowing and expanding all along, its tip bilobed when traceable.

Distribution. Brazil, Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago (Fig. 8).