Rhysida paucidens Pocock, 1897

Simaiakis, Stylianos Michail & Edgecombe, Gregory D., 2013, Scolopendromorph centipedes (Chilopoda: Scolopendromorpha) in the Natural History Museum (London): A review of the hitherto unidentified species collected in Africa, with remarks on taxonomy and distribution, and a new species of Otostigmus (Parotostigmus), Zootaxa 3734 (2), pp. 169-198 : 183

publication ID

https://doi.org/ 10.11646/zootaxa.3734.2.5

publication LSID

lsid:zoobank.org:pub:36ED88E6-2CEB-4071-8429-A39901B8B9BF

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5271299

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03B68458-FFBE-FFF9-FF56-AAB5FBB6FC02

treatment provided by

Felipe

scientific name

Rhysida paucidens Pocock, 1897
status

 

14. Rhysida paucidens Pocock, 1897

( Figs 23–26 View FIGURES 23–29 )

Material examined. Ethiopia (Abyssinia): Abyssinia, 1926, leg. J. Omer-Cooper, 1 ex., BMNH 1953.2.14.514; Ethiopia (Abyssinia): Adda Snores of Hora Harsadi , 3/12/1926, leg. J. Omer-Cooper, 1 ex., BMNH 1953.2.14.515; Sudan: Erkowit , c. 50 m S.E. of Sinkat, December 1960, leg. J.L. Cloudsley-Thompson, 1 ex., BMNH ?. ( Fig. 22 View FIGURE 22 ).

Type locality. Ethiopia (Loga in the Arusha Galla country) ( Minelli et al. 2006).

General distribution. Northeast Tropical Africa: Eritrea (ER), Ethiopia ( ET), Sudan (SD); Asia Temperate: Arabian Peninsula, Oman ( OM); Asia Tropical: India ( IN) "Vorderindien, Pondichery " ( Attems 1930; Lewis and Gallegher 1993; Minelli et al. 2006).

Remarks. Specimens studied here fit fully within the variation encompassed by previous descriptions (following the synonymy by Lewis and Gallagher 1993). The Ethiopian specimens have 19 antennal articles, three of which are glabrous ( Fig. 23 View FIGURES 23–29 ), 5+5 forcipular teeth ( Fig. 24 View FIGURES 23–29 ), continuous paramedian sutures from TT 5–20, paramedian sutures confined to a short anterior extent on the sternites, the diagnostic three prefemoral spines (1VL, 1VM, 1 DM) confined to the proximal half of the prefemur ( Fig. 25 View FIGURES 23–29 ), the coxopleural process with two apical spines but no dorsal or lateral spines ( Fig. 26 View FIGURES 23–29 ), two tarsal spurs on legs 1–18, and one tibial spur on legs 1–4.

Lewis and Gallagher (1993) followed Attems (1930) in treating R. paucidens as a subspecies of R. lithobioides ( Newport, 1845) , resulting in a geographically widespread species distributed from China through India and East Africa to the Arabian Peninsula. They noted, however, that the nominate subspecies (from East Asia) was “quite distinct from the others” (1993: 59), and we regard the cited differences in the number of legs bearing two tarsal spurs and prefemoral spine numbers and distributions, as sufficient to defend separate species status. Accordingly we returned R. lithobioides paucidens to the species level (as in Kraepelin 1903).

ET

East Texas State University

OM

Otago Museum

Darwin Core Archive (for parent article) View in SIBiLS Plain XML RDF