Vagalinski B.1, Golovatch S.I.2 2019. Omobrachyiulus mesorientalis sp.n., the first record of the millipede genus Omobrachyiulus Lohmander, 1936 in the Near East (Diplopoda: Julida: Julidae: Brachyiulini) // Arthropoda Selecta. Vol.28. No.1: 1–7 [in English].
1 Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 2 Yurii Gagarin Street, 1113, Sofia, Bulgaria. E-mail: boyan_vagalinski@excite.com
2 Institute for Problems of Ecology & Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninsky prospect 33, Moscow 117051, Russia. E-mail: sgolovatch@yandex.ru
doi: 10.15298/arthsel. 28.1.01
ABSTRACT. The first species of Omobrachyiulus is described from Israel and Lebanon: O. mesorientalis sp.n. This new and yet sole Near East species of the genus is distinguished from congeners both in certain morphological characters, primarily gonopodal ones, and in likely representing one of the southernmost outliers not only of its mostly Caucasian genus, but also of the entire, largely circum-Mediterranean tribe Brachyiulini it belongs to. Palaeogeographic evidence dating back to the Eastern Paratethys in the Miocene and Pliocene is brought up to possibly explain the modern distribution pattern of both Omobrachyiulus and O. mesorientalis sp.n.
KEY WORDS: taxonomy, new species, Israel, Lebanon.