Decapauropus

Decapauropus is a large genus of pauropods in the family Pauropodidae that includes more than 300 species. This genus was originally described by the French zoologist Paul Remy in 1931 to contain the newly discovered type species Decapauropus cuenoti. As the name of this genus suggests, this genus is notable for including females with ten pairs of legs instead of the nine leg pairs usually found in adult pauropods in the order Tetramerocerata. Before the discovery of D. cuenoti, adult pauropods were thought to have invariably nine pairs of legs.

== Description == In 1957, Remy demoted Decapauropus from a genus to a subgenus within the genus Allopauropus, but the Swedish zoologist Ulf Scheller restored Decapauropus as a separate genus in 2008. Pauropods in both genera have five-segmented legs for the first and last leg pairs and six-segmented legs for the pairs in between. The two genera can be distinguished, however, by the setae on the pygidial sternum: Whereas Decapauropus has two pairs of setae, Allopauropus has three pairs. Furthermore, the two genera differ in the subadult (fourth) stage of post-embryonic development in terms of the setae on the pygidial tergum: Whereas Decapauropus has only one pair of setae, Allopauropus has two pairs.