Stenotaenia palaestina, (VERHOEFF, 1925)

Bonato, Lucio & Minelli, Alessandro, 2008, Stenotaenia Koch, 1847: a hitherto unrecognized lineage of western Palaearctic centipedes with unusual diversity in body size and segment number (Chilopoda: Geophilidae), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 153 (2), pp. 253-286 : 271

STENOTAENIA PALAESTINA ( VERHOEFF, 1925)

Geophilus palaestinus Verhoeff, 1925: 72 (original description), 73 (in key). Simophilus palaestinus: Attems, 1929a: 196 (in key), 197 (redescription).

Type locality: ‘ Chuldah bei Jaffa’ = Chuldah, near Jaffo ( Israel) .

Type material: Holotype, sex unknown, 25-mm long; held in the Zoologische Staatssammlung München, ZSM /Myr-A20030436 ( J. Spelda, pers. comm.).

Diagnosis: A Stenotaenia species of intermediate body size (total length reaching at least 2.5 cm); c. 65–69 leg-bearing segments; labrum with about four or five tubercles; first maxillae with distinct lappets on the coxosternum, apparently without lappets on the telopodites; chitin lines of the forcipular coxosternum reaching the anterior condyles; forcipular intermediate articles distinct; sternal pore areas in the anterior part of the trunk oval, longer than wide, and placed on the posterior half of each sternum; each coxopleuron with one anterior and one posterior pouch with pores (see also Table 3).

Taxonomic history: After the original description by Verhoeff (1925) it was never recorded further. Its identity and validity remained unchallenged, even though Attems (1929a) referred it to the genus Simophilus .

Assignment to Stenotaenia: It is assigned confidently to Stenotaenia (comb. nov.), as the original description documents a combination of characters that are diagnostic for this genus (Table 2). Further support comes from the fact that Verhoeff (1925), in introducing G. palaestinus , explicitly considered it to be very close to S. linearis .

Validity: It is recognized here as a distinct species only provisionally, based on the published original description, which indicates a possible difference in respect to other species occurring in that region, at least in the number of trunk segments ( Table 3). Indeed, its actual relations in respect to other species of Stenotaenia need to be thoroughly assessed.

Distribution: Only known from two close localities in Palestine, namely the type locality ( Fig. 2 ) and Jerusalem (another specimen identified by K. W. Verhoeff, preserved in the Zoologische Staatssammlung München; J. Spelda, pers. comm.).

Figures

Figure 2. Geographical distribution of Stenotaenia species. The previously published and new records have been plotted upon a grid of 30′ latitude ¥ 30′ longitude. The type localities of all nominal taxa are indicated by circles (full circles for valid species, empty circles for synonyms), with the following abbreviations: ab, abbreviatus; ac, acuneli; al, albanensis; an, antecribellatus; as, asiaeminoris; bo, bosporanus; br, brevicornis; c, caldarium; cr, cribelliger; fi, fimbriatus; ff, forficularius; fv, foveolatus; fr, frenum; gi, giljarovi; gr, graecus; li, linearis; na, naxius; or, ormanyensis; pl, palaestinus; po, polyporus; pp, palpiger; rh, rhodopensis; ro, romanus; sl, silvestrii; sm, simplex; so, sorrentinus; st, sturanyi.