Mecistocephalus Newport, 1842

Jonishi, Taro & Nakano, Takafumi, 2022, Correct Authorships, Synonymies, and Remarks on the Type Series of Fourteen Names of Centipedes Introduced by Yoshioki Takakuwa in 1934 and Mecistocephalus takakuwai (Chilopoda: Geophilomorpha and Scolopendromorpha), Species Diversity 27 (1), pp. 71-81 : 77

Genus Mecistocephalus Newport, 1842

Mecistocephalus brevisternalis Takakuwa, 1934b [Japanese name: Itaya-nagazujimukade]

Mecistocephalus brevisternalis Takakuwa, 1934b: 362–363 , fig. 11 (available name); Verhoeff 1937: 235; Verhoeff 1939: 86.

Mecistocephalus brevisternalis Takakuwa, 1934c: 884 (list).

Mecistocephalus brevisternalis Takakuwa, 1934d: 223–224 , figs 2, 3 (invalidly described as new); Takakuwa 1942: 17; Uliana et al. 2007: 41–42, fig. 52.

Mecistocephalus brevisternalis (without attribution): Attems 1938: 365 (list); Takakuwa 1940a: 68–69, fig. 64; Attems 1947: 101 (list).

Type series. No types were designated in Takakuwa (1934b –d), and these works have no implication of the composition of the original material. Takashima (1955) reported the existence of two syntypes preserved by Miyosi, but no such specimens were found in the Miyosi Collection by the authors, and thus they seem to have been lost.

Type locality. Marschialinseln (= Marshall Islands) ( Takakuwa 1934b). Takakuwa (1939a, 1940a, 1942) subsequently mentioned Jaluit Atoll (in Marshall Islands) as the locality of this species.

Japanese name. The name “Itaya-nagazujimukade” was introduced by Takakuwa (1934b).

Remarks. The authorship of this species in ChiloBase 2.0 (Bonato et al. 2016f), currently given as Takakuwa (1934d), should be corrected to Takakuwa (1934b).

Takakuwa (1934d) was erroneously cited as “ Takakuwa (1932) ” in Verhoeff (1939) and Takakuwa (1940a). This may be explained by a reprint of Takakuwa (1934d) preserved in Miyosi’s personal collection of myriapod publications: the front cover of the reprint indicates that this work was published in “June, 1932”, apparently a misprint for “June, 1934”.