A Revision of the Milliped Genus Cubodesmus

A preliminary revision of the genus Cubodesmus Chamberlin, 1918, revealed that the names Cubodesmus latior, C. proximus, C. pelopleurus, C. princeps, and C. limoneus, all proposed by Chamberlin in 1918, are considered to be-junior subjective synonyms of Cubodesmus ramsdeni Chamberlin, 1918. C. prominens Loomis, 1938, is regarded as a valid species. Two new species are described from Cuba: Cubodesmus mariana from Guantanamo and Cubodesmus yazminae from Camagu.ey. The genus Cubodes mus was proposed by Chamberlin in 1918 for six new species from the vicinity of Guantanamo, Cuba. In 193 3, Loomis reported a female specimen from Camagiiey as C. proximus, and in 1938 he commented on C. limoneus and C. latior, giving a drawing of the left gonopod of a paratype of the latter. In the same paper, he described C. prominens from eastern Oriente Province. Finally, in 1941, Loomis published gonopod drawings for the nominal species C. ramsdeni and C. pleopleurus, drawn from paratype specimens. No further additions have been made to the content of the genus, although in 1974 Torres gave a list of all species; Gonzales & Golovatch ( 1990) included the same taxa in their catalog of Cuban diplopods; and Hoffman (1980) listed Cubodesmus in the Chelodesmidae and estimated a content of about six species. Of the seven species of Cubodesmus thus far named, five are considered in the present paper to be junior synonyms of C. ramsdeni; the addition of two new species brings the number of recognized valid species to four, all endemic to the eastern third of the island of Cuba