A new species of Paracortina from a Vietnamese cave, with remarkable secondary sexual characters in males (Callipodida, Paracortinidae).

A new millipede species, Paracortinakyrangsp. nov., is described from a cave in Cao Bang Province, northern Vietnam. The new species is diagnosed by having an extraordinarily long projection on the head of males, reduced eyes, a gonocoxite with two processes, a long and slender gonotelopodite with two long, clavate prefemoroidal processes densely covered with long macrosetae apically, and with a distal, reverse, short spine on mesal side, and a rather sinuous distal part of the telopodite. This is the third species of the genus that is known from Vietnam. A brief comparison of some secondary sexual characters is made.

A revision of the millipede family Paracortinidae (Diplopoda, Callipodida).

The taxonomy of the family Paracortinidae Wang & Zhang, 1993 is revised based on literature, old and recently collected material. A new genus Crassipetalum Akkari & Stoev, gen. nov. is described, to accommodate a new species Crassipetalummagnum Akkari & Stoev, gen. nov. et sp. nov. and a recently described species Crassipetaluminflatum (Chen, Zheng & Jian, 2023), comb. nov. The genus Scotopetalum Shear, 2000 hitherto described for the Vietnamese species S.warreni Shear, 2000 and subsequently synonymised with the genus Paracortina Wang & Zhang, 1993 is here resurrected and supplemented with another species, S.chinensis (Stoev & Geoffroy, 2004), comb. nov., ex Paracortinachinensis Stoev & Geoffroy, 2004. The status of the fourth genus in the family, Angulifemur Zhang, 1997, is reconfirmed. Based on recently collected specimens from China, two new species of the genus Paracortina are described: P.asciformis Akkari & Stoev, sp. nov. (Sichuan Prov., Lixian County) and P.kabaki Akkari & Stoev, sp. nov. (Yunnan, Shangrila County). The Vietnamese species Paracortinamultisegmentata Stoev & Geoffroy, 2004 and Paracortinakyrang Nguyen, Stoev, Nguyen & Vu, 2023 are considered of uncertain taxonomic position within Paracortinidae. Differential diagnoses for the proposed genera as well as for all the species are presented, and descriptions or descriptive notes for all the species are provided, using a standardised terminology, and when possible, accompanied by micrographs of the habitus and gonopod structures. An identification key based on gonopod structures is proposed for all the members of the family. A discussion on species affinities, secondary sexual characters, troglomorphic characters, geographical distribution, and habitat preferences are also provided together with a distribution map for all members of the family.

A review of the cavernicolous Trichopolydesmidae (Diplopoda, Polydesmida) from the Carpathian-Balkan arch and the Rhodope Mountains, with descriptions of two new genera and three new species.

All cavernicolous species of the millipede family Trichopolydesmidae from the Carpathian-Balkan arch and the Rhodope Mountains have been reviewed. At present the family has been shown to comprise five or six genera with eight or nine species. Two new genera have been described, viz., Balkanodesminus gen. nov., with two new species: B.dentatoides sp. nov. and B.serbicus sp. nov., from Bulgaria and Serbia, respectively, and the monospecific Rhodopodesmus gen. nov., with R.niveus sp. nov., from Bulgaria. Two new combinations and one new status have been proposed: Balkanodesminusbulgaricus (Strasser, 1962) comb. nov. ex Bacillidesmusbulgaricus Strasser, 1962 and Balkanodesminusdentatus (Strasser, 1966a) comb. nov., stat. nov. ex Bacillidesmusbulgaricusdentatus Strasser, 1966a. All genera and species are diagnosed with the inclusion of the most relevant remarks for each of them. Old museum types are checked for Bacillidesmusfiliformis (Latzel, 1884) with lectotype designation, as well as for Trichopolydesmuseremitis Verhoeff, 1898. An identification key to all six genera and a distribution map for the eight species are provided, as well as brief remarks and general considerations on the family Trichopolydesmidae.

Conservation of terrestrial invertebrates: a review of IUCN and regional Red Lists for Myriapoda.

Red Listing of Threatened species is recognized as the most objective approach for evaluating extinction risk of living organisms which can be applied at global or national scales. Invertebrates account for nearly 97% of all animals on the planet but are insufficiently represented in the IUCN Red Lists at both scales. To analyze the occurrence of species present in regional Red Lists, accounts of 48 different countries and regions all over the world were consulted and all data about myriapods (Myriapoda) ever assessed in Red Lists at any level assembled. Myriapod species assessments were found in eleven regional Red Lists; however, no overlap between the species included in the global IUCN Red List and the regional ones was established. This means that myriapod species considered threatened at regional level may not be eligible for international funding specific for protection of native threatened species (more than US$ 25 million were available in the last decade) as most financial instruments tend to support only threatened species included in the IUCN Red List. As the lack of financial resources may limit protection for species in risk of extinction, it is urgent to increase the possibilities of getting financial support for implementation of measures for their protection. A Red List of all Myriapoda species recorded in Red Lists at national or local (596) and global (210) scales totaling 806 species is presented. This list shows for the first time an overview of the current conservation status of Myriapoda species. Here, the urgent need of establishing a Myriapoda Specialist Group in the Species Survival Commission of IUCN is also stressed.

Five million years in the darkness: A new troglomorphic species of Cryptops Leach, 1814 (Chilopoda, Scolopendromorpha) from Movile Cave, Romania.

A new species of Cryptops Leach, 1814, C. speleorex sp. nov., is described from Movile Cave, Dobrogea, Romania. The cave is remarkable for its unique ecosystem entirely dependent on methane- and sulfur-oxidising bacteria. Until now, the cave was thought to be inhabited by the epigean species C. anomalans, which is widespread in Europe. Despite its resemblance to C. anomalans, the new species is well-defined morphologically and molecularly based on two mitochondrial (cytochrome c oxidase subunit I COI and 16S rDNA) and one nuclear (28S rDNA) markers. Cryptops speleorex sp. nov. shows a number of troglomorphic traits such as a generally large body and elongated appendages and spiracles, higher number of coxal pores and saw teeth on the tibia of the ultimate leg. With this record, the number of endemic species known from the Movile Cave reaches 35, which ranks it as one of the most species-rich caves in the world.

Dwarfs under dinosaur legs: a new millipede of the order Callipodida (Diplopoda) from Cretaceous amber of Burma.

The entire Mesozoic Era is rather poor in millipede (class Diplopoda) fossils, with less than a dozen species being taxonomically described. Here, we describe the first fossil millipede of the order Callipodida, Burmanopetaluminexpectatum gen. nov. et sp. nov., found in early Cenomanian amber of Burma, 98.79±0.62 Mya. The species possesses a number of morphological traits that exclude it from all extant suborders, and Burmanopetalidea suborder nov. and Burmanopetalidae fam. nov. are here erected to accommodate it. The new suborder can be recognized by the following unique characters: pleurotergal setae absent; telson with a specific spatulate shape twice the size of the penultimate body ring; hypoproct devoid of setae; and eyes composed of five well-separated ommatidia. While the callipodidan habitus seems to have remained generally unchanged for at least 99 million years, pleurotergal and hypoproctal setation, as well as the complexity of eyes in ground-dwelling forms may have evolved recently in the order. As B.inexpectatum gen. nov. et sp. nov. is the first true callipodidan in the fossil record, the minimum age of Callipodida is thus at least 99 Mya.

Two new species of the millipede genus Metonomastus Attems, 1937 from the Balkan Peninsula (Diplopoda, Polydesmida, Paradoxosomatidae).

In addition to the eleven previously known species of the Mediterranean genus Metonomastus, two more species are described: M.petrovi sp. n., from the Rhodopi Mts. and Bunardzhik Hill in Bulgaria, and M.radjai sp. n., from the island of Mljet in Croatia. The relationships between the congeners and their distributions are briefly discussed. All 13 species of the genus are keyed.

OpenBiodiv-O: ontology of the OpenBiodiv knowledge management system.

BACKGROUND: The biodiversity domain, and in particular biological taxonomy, is moving in the direction of semantization of its research outputs. The present work introduces OpenBiodiv-O, the ontology that serves as the basis of the OpenBiodiv Knowledge Management System. Our intent is to provide an ontology that fills the gaps between ontologies for biodiversity resources, such as DarwinCore-based ontologies, and semantic publishing ontologies, such as the SPAR Ontologies. We bridge this gap by providing an ontology focusing on biological taxonomy. RESULTS: OpenBiodiv-O introduces classes, properties, and axioms in the domains of scholarly biodiversity publishing and biological taxonomy and aligns them with several important domain ontologies (FaBiO, DoCO, DwC, Darwin-SW, NOMEN, ENVO). By doing so, it bridges the ontological gap across scholarly biodiversity publishing and biological taxonomy and allows for the creation of a Linked Open Dataset (LOD) of biodiversity information (a biodiversity knowledge graph) and enables the creation of the OpenBiodiv Knowledge Management System. A key feature of the ontology is that it is an ontology of the scientific process of biological taxonomy and not of any particular state of knowledge. This feature allows it to express a multiplicity of scientific opinions. The resulting OpenBiodiv knowledge system may gain a high level of trust in the scientific community as it does not force a scientific opinion on its users (e.g. practicing taxonomists, library researchers, etc.), but rather provides the tools for experts to encode different views as science progresses. CONCLUSIONS: OpenBiodiv-O provides a conceptual model of the structure of a biodiversity publication and the development of related taxonomic concepts. It also serves as the basis for the OpenBiodiv Knowledge Management System.

A new cave centipede from Croatia, Eupolybothrus liburnicus sp. n., with notes on the subgenus Schizopolybothrus Verhoeff, 1934 (Chilopoda, Lithobiomorpha, Lithobiidae).

A new species of Eupolybothrus Verhoeff, 1907 discovered in caves of Velebit Mountain in Croatia is described. E. liburnicussp. n. exhibits a few morphological differences from its most similar congeners, all of which are attributed to the subgenus Schizopolybothrus Verhoeff, 1934, and two approaches to species delimitation using the COI barcode region identify it as distinct from the closely allied E. cavernicolus Stoev & Komericki, 2013. E. spiniger (Latzel, 1888) is redescribed and a lectotype is designated for it as well as E. caesar (Verhoeff, 1899) to stabilize their respective taxonomic status. The subspecies E. acherontis wardaranus Verhoeff, 1937, previously suspected to be a synonym of E. caesar (Verhoeff, 1899), is redescribed and its taxonomy revised after the study of type material whereas the identity of E. acherontis (Verhoeff, 1900) described from a female from southwest Trebinje (Bosnia and Herzegovina) remains unknown. Type material of E. stygis (Folkmanova, 1940) is confirmed to be lost and future designation of neotypes from topotypic specimens is necessary to stabilize its taxonomy. The importance of setal arrangement on the intermediate and 14th tergites and the sexual modifications on the male 15th prefemur for species identification is discussed in the light of present findings, and a review of the species of E. (Schizopolybothrus) that display these traits is also provided.

New records of millipedes and centipedes from Bulgaria, with an annotated checklist of the Bulgarian myriapods.

The present paper records new and poorly known myriapods (Diplopoda, Chilopoda) collected in Bulgaria in the last 10 years. Four new species are reported as new to the Bulgarian fauna: Lithobius melanops Newport, 1845 (Chilopoda: Lithobiomorpha: Lithodiidae), Polydesmus collaris C.L. Koch, 1847, Polydesmus inconstans Latzel, 1884 and Polydesmus schaessburgensis Verhoeff, 1898 (Diplopoda: Polydesmida: Polydesmidae). Scanning electron micrographs of the gonopods and male leg-pairs 5 and 6 are provided for the first time for Bulgarosoma superficiei Strasser, 1975, a species hitherto known only from its original description. This article presents also an updated list of Myriapoda in Bulgaria. The list includes a total of 251 (sub-)species of the classes Diplopoda (127), Chilopoda (104), Pauropoda (18) and Symphyla (2).

Scolopendromorpha of New Guinea and adjacent islands (Myriapoda, Chilopoda).

The centipede fauna of the second largest island in the world, New Guinea, and its adjacent islands, is poorly known, with most information deriving from the first half of the 20th century. Here we present new data on the order Scolopendromorpha based on material collected in the area in the last 40 years, mainly by Bulgarian and Latvian zoologists. The collections comprise eleven species of six genera and three families. The diagnosis of Cryptops (Trigonocryptops) is emended in the light of the recent findings. The old and doubtful record of Scolopendra multidens Newport, 1844 from New Guinea is referred to S. subspinipes Leach, 1815 and the species is here excluded from the present day list of New Guinean scolopendromorphs. Cryptops nepalensis Lewis, 1999 is here recorded from New Guinea for the first time. An annotated list and an identification key to the scolopendromorphs of the studied region are presented.

A common registration-to-publication automated pipeline for nomenclatural acts for higher plants (International Plant Names Index, IPNI), fungi (Index Fungorum, MycoBank) and animals (ZooBank).

Collaborative effort among four lead indexes of taxon names and nomenclatural acts (International Plant Name Index (IPNI), Index Fungorum, MycoBank and ZooBank) and the journals PhytoKeys, MycoKeys and ZooKeys to create an automated, pre-publication, registration workflow, based on a server-to-server, XML request/response model. The registration model for ZooBank uses the TaxPub schema, which is an extension to the Journal Tag Publishing Suite (JATS) of the National Library of Medicine (NLM). The indexing or registration model of IPNI and Index Fungorum will use the Taxonomic Concept Transfer Schema (TCS) as a basic standard for the workflow. Other journals and publishers who intend to implement automated, pre-publication, registration of taxon names and nomenclatural acts can also use the open sample XML formats and links to schemas and relevant information published in the paper.

A review of the millipede genus Typhloiulus Latzel, 1884 (Diplopoda: Julida: Julidae), with a description of three new species from Bulgaria and Greece.

The mostly cavernicolous and endogean millipede genus Typhloiulus Latzel, 1884 (Julida: Julidae) is hitherto known to comprise 33-36 species distributed in the Balkan and Apennine peninsulas, as well as the adjacent parts of the Alps and the Carpathian Arch. Here we describe three new species, T. bulgaricus sp. n., T. orpheus sp. n. and T. rhodopinus sp. n., collected from caves and other subterranean habitats in Bulgaria and Greece. Furthermore, the taxonomic descriptions of some poorly known species are emended and/or new distribution data given. T. staregai Strasser, 1973, is synonymized with T. strictus (Latzel, 1882). A neotype of T. kotelensis Jawlowski, 1938, of which the original type material is thought to be lost, is designated, and a checklist of Typhloiulus species is provided.

At the end of the rope: Geophilushadesi sp. n. - the world's deepest cave-dwelling centipede (Chilopoda, Geophilomorpha, Geophilidae).

A new geophilomorph centipede, Geophilushadesi sp. n., is described from caves in the Velebit Mountain, central Croatia. Together with Geophiluspersephones Foddai & Minelli, 1999, described from Pierre Saint-Martin cave in France, they are the only two remarkably troglomorphic geophilomorphs hitherto known. The new species apparently belongs to a group of Geophilus species inhabiting mainly Western and Southern Europe, with a uniquely modified pretarsus in the second maxillae. Geophilushadesi sp. n. shows unusual traits, some of which commonly found in troglobitic arthropods, including exceptionally elongated antennae, trunk segments and leg claws. The species is described upon specimens found in two caves at a depth below -250 m. Another two specimens apparently belonging to the same species have been recorded in another deep vertical cave at -980 m and -1100 m. The latter represents the world's deepest record of Chilopoda as a whole.