Scolopendra gigantea, antennae, forcipular coxosternite, prefemoral spines, second maxilla, second maxillae, distomesal prefemoral process, prefemoral spine

General description: 

Species concept: Morphological Species Concept

Diagnosis: Antennae with 17 antennal articles. Basal 7-10 (usually 8-9) antennal articles sparsely hirsute. Cephalic plate with 2 anteriorly diverging longitudinal paramedian sutures. Article 3 of second maxillae with ventral ridge and with a small, pointed and sclerotized ventrodistal tip. Forcipular coxosternite with transverse suture. T1 with anterior transverse sulcus. T21 without median longitudinal suture. LL(1)2-20 with 2-4(5) dorsodistal prefemoral spines. Distomesal prefemoral process of L21 with 6-8 distal spines.

See Kraepelin (1903: 233)[1], Attems (1930: 39-40)[2], Shelley & Kiser (2000: 160-161)[3], Shelley (2006: 26)[4], and Lewis (2016: 24, Table 1)[5].

References

  1. K. Kraepelin, “Revision der Scolopendriden”, Mitteilungen aus dem Naturhistorischen Museum in Hamburg, vol. 20, pp. 1-276, 1903.
  2. C. Attems, Myriapoda. 2. Scolopendromorpha, vol. 54. Berlin, Leipzig: De Gruyter, 1930, p. 308.
  3. R. M. Shelley and Kiser, S. B., “Neotype designation and a diagnostic account for the centipede,Scolopendra gigantea L. 1758, with an account ofS. galapagoensis Bollman 1889 (Chilopoda Scolopendromorpha Scolopendridae)”, Tropical Zoology, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 159-170, 2000.
  4. R. M. Shelley, “A chronological catalog of the New World species of Scolopendra L., 1758 (Chilopoda: Scolopendromorpha: Scolopendridae)”, Zootaxa, vol. 1253, no. 1, pp. 1-50, 2006.
  5. J. G. E. Lewis, “On the consistency of some taxonomic characters in the Scolopendromorpha and comments on the scolopocryptopid subfamily Kethopinae (Myriapoda: Chilopoda)”, Acta Societatis Zoologicae Bohemicae, vol. 80, no. 1, pp. 21-31, 2016.
Distribution: 

Panama (Quintero Arias & Cupul-Magaña, 2013: 13)[1], the Caribbean coastline of northern South America including Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, and Suriname (Shelley, 2006: 5)[2], and the islands of Aruba, Curaçao, Margarita Island, and Trinidad (Shelley & Kiser, 2000: 163[3]; Shelley, 2006: 5[2]).

Records needing confirmation: Brazil: Goiás & Alagoas states (Bücherl, 1942[4]; Shelley, 2006: 5[2]).

Deletions: Specimens from the US Virgin Islands, Haiti, Mexico, and Honduras are assumed to represent accidental human importations or perhaps labeling errors; with only one individual from each of these areas, the species does not appear to be established in any of them (Shelley & Kiser, 2000: 163[3]; Shelley, 2006: 5[2]). Kraepelin (1903: 233)[5] and Attems (1930: 40)[6] cited Brazil and Chile for S. gigantea, which were deleted by Shelley & Kiser (2000: 163, 165)[3]. A misidentified record of S. gigantea from Sinaloa state, Mexico by Sánchez Vargas (2002: 218, unnumbered figure)[7] was corrected by Cupul-Magaña (2014: 75)[8] to S. polymorpha.

References

  1. D. Quintero Arias and Cupul-Magaña, F. Gán, “First record of Scolopendra gigantea Linnaeus, 1758 (Chilopoda: Scolopendromorpha: Scolopendridae) from Panama”, Boletín del Museo de Entomología de la Universidad del Valle, vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 12-15, 2013.
  2. R. M. Shelley, “A chronological catalog of the New World species of Scolopendra L., 1758 (Chilopoda: Scolopendromorpha: Scolopendridae)”, Zootaxa, vol. 1253, no. 1, pp. 1-50, 2006.
  3. R. M. Shelley and Kiser, S. B., “Neotype designation and a diagnostic account for the centipede,Scolopendra gigantea L. 1758, with an account ofS. galapagoensis Bollman 1889 (Chilopoda Scolopendromorpha Scolopendridae)”, Tropical Zoology, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 159-170, 2000.
  4. W. Bücherl, “Catálogo dos Quilópodos da zona neotrópica”, Memórias do Instituto Butantan, vol. 15, pp. 251–372, 1942.
  5. K. Kraepelin, “Revision der Scolopendriden”, Mitteilungen aus dem Naturhistorischen Museum in Hamburg, vol. 20, pp. 1-276, 1903.
  6. C. Attems, Myriapoda. 2. Scolopendromorpha, vol. 54. Berlin, Leipzig: De Gruyter, 1930, p. 308.
  7. D. A. Sánchez-Vargas, “Arácnidos y miriápodos: alacranes, arañas, ciempiés y otros parientes artrópodos poco conocidos”, in Atlas de la biodiversidad de Sinaloa, Culiacán: El Colegio de Sinaloa, 2002, pp. 211-219.
  8. F. G. Cupul-Magaña, “Registro de las especies de ciempiés (Chilopoda) y milpiés (Diplopoda) de Sinaloa, México”, Actualidades Biológicas, vol. 36, pp. 73-76, 2014.
Taxonomic name: 
Scolopendra gigantea (Taxonomy), antennae (Morphology), forcipular coxosternite (Morphology), prefemoral spines (Morphology), second maxilla (Morphology), second maxillae (Morphology), distomesal prefemoral process (Morphology), prefemoral spine (Morphology)
Scratchpads developed and conceived by (alphabetical): Ed Baker, Katherine Bouton Alice Heaton Dimitris Koureas, Laurence Livermore, Dave Roberts, Simon Rycroft, Ben Scott, Vince Smith