Chondromorpha kelaarti Humbert, 1865

Chondromorpha kelaarti Humbert, 1865 View in CoL

Material Examined: 1 male ( SPC0009 ) from Gadhvi village in Dang, 20° 50' 24.51" N, 73° 41' 6.14" E, Gujarat, India, 462 m. alt., 28 July 2024, R A. Dave ( Fig. 11 View FIGURE 11 ) GoogleMaps .

Habitat Preferences: Chondromorpha kelaarti Humbert, 1865 is found in gravel and dumped soil. In the monsoon season, adults of this species are found solitary and walking on the path of the village and forest area of Dang District in Gujarat. Moreover, this species is found in the city area's metalled road, this observation being the same by Bhakat (1989).

Seasonal Occurrence in Gujarat: This species emerges from the soil at the onset of the monsoon around mid-June and persists until late November, extending into early December. A few individuals are also found in the remaining months.

Morphology: Colouration blackish, Prozona smooth, metaterga granulated with a transverse sulci on rings 2 to 16, paranota yellowish, ventral surface straw-coloured, and legs and antennae brownish to blackish. Antennae long, reaching up to ring 4. Limbus is present on metazona. The collum bears three transverse rows of setae. C. kelaarti is separated from other species by the shape of sternal tubercles present between male coxae 4, a trapezoid with a short paired anterior process ( Sankaran & Sebastian, 2017) ( Fig. 11 View FIGURE 11 ).

The gonopods are transversely oriented, covering two-thirds of prozonite 7. The coxite is long, cylindrical, and setose distally. The prefemorite is elongated with dense setae and a stiff distal seta. The femorite is short and cylindrical, featuring a median fold with the seminal groove running all along its extent. The solenophore is moderately long, curved towards the midline, with a triangular mesal process ( Fig. 10 View FIGURE 10 ). These features match the illustrations by Sankaran & Sebastian (2017), confirming species identification.