Description of Taulidesmella tabatinga n.sp. (Diplopoda, Polydesmida, Pyrgodesmidae) from Amazon River floodplains, with notes on its distribution and ecology

Abstract

A new pyrgodesmid, Taulidesmella tabatinga n.sp., is described from near Iquitos, Peru, from near Tabatinga (an area at the border between Brazil, Peru and Colombia), from the environs of Manaus and from Rio Madeira, Brazil, all these localities lying along the Solimões/Amazon River. T. tabatinga is only a second congener distinct from the type-species T. chanchamayo KRAUS, 1959, from Peru, chiefly by the much larger body size, 12-lobed collum, somewhat differently lobulated paraterga and simpler gonopods. This species, apparently widespread in Amazonian floodplains, represents a "terricolous migrant" which passes the aquatic phase on tree trunks above the water-level and has a low flood tolerance (1 < 16 hs).