Scolopendromorpha

Taxonomic studies on scolopendrid centipedes have often documented variability at the individual and population levels and applied those data to questions of species delimitation, but these investigations have mostly lacked an explicit phylogenetic framework. A molecular phylogeny and recent taxonomic revision for Indian species of the scolopendrid Digitipes Attems, 1930, permit variability of traditional taxonomic characters for Scolopendridae to be mapped onto a phylogeny. Based on their fit to the tree using maximum likelihood, reliable species-level characters include the number of glabrous antennal articles, presence of a median ridge on the tergites, and presence or absence of a tarsal spur on leg 20. Characters that are conserved within and diagnostic for particular species but labile within others (typically with geographic structure) include the first tergite with paramedian sutures, presence or absence of a lateral spine on the coxopleuron, and the number of spines in a ventromedial row on the ultimate leg prefemur. Comparisons with published accounts of variability in species of other scolopendrid genera, particularly Scolopendra and Otostigmus, show that Indian Digitipes has conserved morphology in some characters that are taxonomically useful elsewhere in the family, and most of its taxonomically informative characters have analogous patterns of variability in other genera. The approach used in this study to evaluate morphological variation in a phylo-genetic framework can be applied to other taxa in which morphologically cryptic species have been reported and where species diagnosis requires a combination of characters.

El objetivo del presente trabajo es entregar los primeros aportes sobre anomalías morfológicas en miriápodos  chilenos. Se analizaron más de 400 ejemplares, todos, recolectados en la Región del Biobío entre 2011 y 2012. Los  resultados arrojan la presencia de tres casos teratológicos (dos esquistomelias ternarias y una atrofia). La complejidad morfológica de estas teratologías nos hace suponer que es poco probable que se deban a procesos de regeneración.

The objective of this work was to provide the first data on morphological abnormalities in Chilean millipedes. Over 400 specimens were collected in the Biobio Region and analyzed between 2011 and 2012. Results show the presence of 3 teratological cases (two ternary schistomelies and one atrophy). The morphological complexity of these teratologies makes us suppose that it is unlikely that they are due to regeneration processes.

Both the subgenus Cryptops (Cryptops) Leach, 1815 and C. (C.) hortensis (Donovan, 1810), as well as the family Cryptopidae to which they belong, are currently reported in the Asian part of Russia for the first time. All records of the species in southwestern Siberia are confined to hothouses. Distributional remarks are provided and all currently reported findings are mapped.

A second case of predation on centipedes (Chilopoda) by the Cuban endemic scorpion Rhopalurus junceus (Herbst, 1800) (Buthidae) is recorded here, in this case on Scolopocryptops ferrugineus (Linnaeus, 1767) (Scolopocryptopidae), in north Matanzas province, western Cuba.