Accepted by B. Shear: 3 Dec. 2014; published: 16 Mar. 2015 ZOOTAXA ISSN 1175-5326 (print edition) ISSN 1175-5334 (online edition) Copyright © 2015 Magnolia Press Zootaxa 3931 (4): 483–504 www.mapress.com/zootaxa/ Article 483 http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3931.4.2 http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:2F14AF9A-3E4C-4A30-960B-8C612220D4E4 Two new species of dragon millipedes, genus Desmoxytes Chamnerlin, 1923, from Laos (Diplopoda: Polydesmida: Paradoxosomatidae), with redescriptions of all four species of Attems from Vietnam NATDANAI LIKHITRAKARN 1 , SERGEI I. GOLOVATCH 2,3 & SOMSAK PANHA 1,3 1 Animal Systematics Research Unit, Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, 10330, Thailand. E-mail: kongerrrr@hotmail.com and somsakp@sc.chula.ac.th 2 Institute for Problems of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninsky pr. 33, Moscow 119071, Russia 2 Corresponding authors. E-mail: somsak.pan@chula.ac.th (Somsak Panha); sgolovatch@yandex.ru (Sergei I. Golovatch) Abstract Two new species of Desmoxytes are described and abundantly illustrated: D. rhinoceros sp. n. and D. rhinoparva sp. n., from southern and northern Laos, respectively. Illustrated redescriptions of all four Vietnamese Desmoxytes species pro- posed by Carl Attems are also provided, based on type material. Key words: Millipede, Desmoxytes, new species, Laos Introduction The large, basically South Asian millipede genus Desmoxytes Chamberlin, 1923, is the only one in the tribe Orthomorphini, subfamily Paradoxosomatinae, family Paradoxosomatidae which has been allotted a vernacular name, “the dragon millipedes”, to emphasize the peculiar wing-, spine- or antler-shaped paraterga, usually coupled with very brightly coloured bodies (Golovatch et al., 2012). Several species show remarkable, aposematic live colorations ranging from intense carmine to pink or purple-pink such as Desmoxytes delfae (Jeekel, 1964), D. cattienensis Nguyen, Golovatch & Anichkin, 2005, D. planata (Pocock, 1895) and D. purpurosea Enghoff, Sutcharit & Panha, 2007. The latter species, from northern Thailand, has been termed the “shocking pink dragon millipede” for its vivid pink body (Enghoff et al., 2007). Since the latest review by Golovatch et al. (2012), a few new congeners have been added from caves in China (Liu et al., 2014). As a result, Desmoxytes currently contains 33 species ranging from southern China in the north, through Indochina, south through Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and southern Malaysia (Golovatch et al., 2012). Only one species, D. planata, has attained a particularly vast distribution in the Indo-Pacific through human activities (see all records in Nguyen & Sierwald, 2013), whereas the remaining Desmoxytes species are only known from a single locality, at most from a few ones (Table). The bulk of species diversity is found in China (14 species, including several presumed troglobites), followed by Vietnam (nine species), Thailand (eight species) and Myanmar (two species). No Desmoxytes have been recorded in Laos (Likhitrakarn et al., 2014a) and Cambodia. The present paper provides an updated review of Desmoxytes, including two new congeners, the first to be recorded in Laos. In addition, all four Vietnamese Desmoxytes species proposed by Carl Attems are redescribed and illustrated, based on the types kept in the collection of the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien, Austria. Material and methods The new material was taken in Laos during several collecting trips undertaken in 2013 and 2014 by SP and members of the Animal Systematics Research Unit, Chulalongkorn University. Live animals were photographed in