Geophilus tenuiculus, (Koch, 1878)

Published, First, 2007, The Mecistocephalidae of the Japanese and Taiwanese islands (Chilopoda: Geophilomorpha), Zootaxa 1396, pp. 1-84 : 72

‘Mecistocephalus’ tenuiculus ( Koch, 1878)

This species was described from ‘Japan’ as Geophilus tenuiculus . The original description was quite poor, and this taxon was later referred to Mecistocephalus by Pocock (1891), who dubiously considered it a synonym of Mecistocephalus punctifrons Newport, 1843 , and by Silvestri (1919), who synonymized it under Mecistocephalus rubriceps Wood, 1862 . It was eventually recognised as belonging to Geophilidae by Attems (1929), but it was still listed among mecistocephalids by Wang (1951, 1962) as a synonym of M. rubriceps . We are confident that M. tenuiculus does not belong to Mecistocephalidae : despite of the fact that the number of leg­bearing segments is consistent with the range found in this family (probably 49, as the original paper gives a total of 96 legs, the last pair being likely out of the count) this species is provided with pores in the posterior part of the trunk sterna (a character absent in mecistocephalids to the exclusion of the males of some species of Tygarrup ), and the forcipular tergum is wider than the head (not so in any known mecistocephalid).