Geophilus richardi
| Geophilus richardi | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum: | Myriapoda |
| Class: | Chilopoda |
| Order: | Geophilomorpha |
| Family: | Geophilidae |
| Genus: | Geophilus |
| Species: | G. richardi
|
| Binomial name | |
| Geophilus richardi Brolemann, 1904
| |
Geophilus richardi is a species of soil centipede in the family Geophilidae.[1] This centipede is found in France and Monaco in the Western Alps as well as in Italy and the Ionian islands.[2][3][1] This species is notable as one of only two in the family Geophilidae to include centipedes with as few as 29 leg pairs.[4] This centipede is also notable for its small size, reaching only 10 mm in length.[5]
Discovery
[edit]This species was first described by the French myriapodologist Henri W. Brölemann in 1904. The original description of this species is based on two female specimens found in Monaco. Brölemann named this species for the French oceanographer Jules Richard, director of the Musée Océanographique de Monaco, who collected these specimens in 1902.[6]
Distribution
[edit]Since the discovery of this centipede in Monaco, this species has been recorded in other Mediterranean localities in Europe,[3] first elsewhere in the Maritime Alps, in the commune of Villeneuve-Loubet in France,[7] then in the comune of Subiaco in the city of Rome in Italy.[8] More recently, this species has been found not only elsewhere on the Italian mainland but also on Italian islands, including Sardinia and Sicily as well as Pianosa and Giannutri in the Tuscan Archipelago, and in the Ionian islands of Greece.[3][8] On the Italian mainland, this species has been recorded not only in the northwestern regions of Piedmont and Liguria but also from the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines down to southern Calabria.[3]
Ecology and habitats
[edit]This species has been recorded in meadows with mosses and humus from the cork oak tree (Quercus suber) or another evergreen, Pistacia lentiscus,[8] from sea level to 350 m in elevation.[3] This species has also been found in woods of the maritime pine (Pinus pinaster), in maquis shrubland with the holm oak (Quercus ilex) and Pistacia lentiscus, and among shrubs of carob (Ceratonia siliqua), rockrose (Cistus), and the strawberry tree (Arbustus unedo), at altitudes up to 710 m in elevation.[3] This species has not been recorded in caves.[3][2]
Description
[edit]Females of this species have 33 pairs of legs, whereas males can have either 29 or 31 leg pairs,[9] but are usually recorded with 31 pairs.[4][7][3] This centipede is small, ranging from only 5 mm to 10 mm in length.[3][2] The body is tapered at each end, and the head is shaped like a rectangle with rounded corners.[6] The head, trunk, and legs feature short setae.[10]
The dorsal shield on the head is slightly longer than wide, with a width/length ratio of 0.97, and the antennae are each 2.8 times as long as the cephalic shield.[10][11] The labrum is divided into distinct lateral and middle pieces, with four teeth on the middle piece.[10][7] The inner teeth are short and blunt, but the outer teeth are longer and pointed.[12] Each of the outer branches of the first maxillae features two articles with a single lappet on the basal article.[10][11][7] Each of the second maxillae ends in a short curved claw that tapers gradually.[2][10] The forcipular tergite leaves a short sclerite exposed in front.[6][10][11] The ultimate article of the forcipules features a large basal tooth, but the internal margin of this article is not serrate.[10][11]
The sternites from the second segment to the middle of the trunk feature fields of pores,[10] but this species lacks the pores typically observed on the ventral surface of most soil centipedes, which usually feature pores from 2 to 4 micrometers in diameter that are each surrounded by a cuticular ring. Instead, the sternites in G. richardi bear a small number of pores from 0.5 to 1 micrometer in diameter. These pores are bounded by a cuticular ring, like the pores typically observed in other species and unlike smaller micropores, which lack such a ring. The small pores observed in G. richardi are possibly the remnants of typical ventral pores, their smaller size being a byproduct of overall miniaturization.[13]
Each of the ultimate legs lacks dorsal coxal pores and features two large ventral pores partly covered by the sternite.[7][2][10] Each of the ultimate legs ends in a claw.[6][7] The telson features two small anal pores.[6][7][11]
This species shares many features with others in the genus Geophilus. For example, like other species in the same genus, this species features teeth on the middle piece of the labrum, lappets on the first maxillae, and claws on the ultimate legs.[7][14] Furthermore, as in other Geophilus species, the head is only slightly elongated in this species, and the pores on the ultimate legs are close to the sternite.[10][7][15]
A few other Geophilus species found in Europe also include centipedes with a number of legs similar to those observed in G. richardi. For example, G. persephones features 29 leg pairs, G. hadesi features 33 pairs, and G. minimus and G. ribauti can each feature as few as 33 pairs. Each of these species, however, can be distinguished from G. richardi based on other traits. For example, G. richardi features fewer pores on the ultimate legs than found in these other species. Furthermore, the second maxillae each end in a tubercle in G. hadesi, G. persephones, and G. minimus, whereas these maxillae each end in a curved claw in G. richardi.[2][10] Moreover, both G. persephones and G. hadesi are found in caves and both share troglomorphic traits, such as elongated antennae: The antennae are at least four times as long as the head is wide in these two species but less than three times as long as the head is wide in G. richardi.[2]
References
[edit]- ^ a b Bonato, L.; Chagas Junior, A.; Edgecombe, G.D.; Lewis, J.G.E.; Minelli, A.; Pereira, L.A.; Shelley, R.M.; Stoev, P.; Zapparoli, M. (2016). "Geophilus richardi Brölemann, 1904". ChiloBase 2.0 - A World Catalogue of Centipedes (Chilopoda). Retrieved 2024-06-08.
- ^ a b c d e f g Bonato, Lucio; Stoev, Pavel (2015). "At the end of the rope: Geophilus hadesi sp. n. – the world's deepest cave-dwelling centipede (Chilopoda, Geophilomorpha, Geophilidae". ZooKeys (510): 95–114 [102, 106]. Bibcode:2015ZooK..510...95S. doi:10.3897/zookeys.510.9614. PMC 4523767. PMID 26257537.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Zapparoli, Marzio (2011). "New records and remarks on the centipede fauna of endogean habitats of Sardinia (Chilopoda)" (PDF). Conservazione Habitat Invertebrati. 5: 223–242 [237].
- ^ a b Stojanović, Dalibor Z.; Šević, Mirko; Makarov, Slobodan E. (2024-03-07). "A new dwarf schendylid centipede (Chilopoda: Geophilomorpha: Schendylidae) with a low number of legs from Serbia, Balkan Peninsula". Zootaxa. 5419 (3): 401–418 [410]. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.5419.3.5. ISSN 1175-5334. PMID 38480317.
- ^ Bonato, Lucio; Minelli, Alessandro; Drago, Leandro; Pereira, Luis Alberto (2015-09-25). "The phylogenetic position of Dinogeophilus and a new evolutionary framework for the smallest epimorphic centipedes (Chilopoda: Epimorpha)". Contributions to Zoology. 84 (3): 237–253 [249]. doi:10.1163/18759866-08403004. hdl:11577/3146565. ISSN 1875-9866.
- ^ a b c d e Brölemann, H.W. (1904). "Chilopodes Monégasques. I. Liste des chilopodes du territoire de la principauté ou dans ses environs immediats. II. Description de geophilides nouveaux. III. Un nouvel Himantarium monstrueux". Bulletin du Musée Océanographique de Monaco (in French). 15: 1–15 [9–11] – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Brolemann, H.W. (1930). Éléments d'une faune des myriapodes de France. Chilopodes (PDF) (in French). Toulouse: Imprimérie Toulousaine. pp. 185–186.
- ^ a b c Minelli, Alessandro (1982). "On Sardinian centipedes (Chilopoda)". Bolletino di Zoologia. 49 (1–2): 1–16 [8]. doi:10.1080/11250008209439365.
- ^ Pereira, Luis Alberto (2013-01-01). "Discovery of a second geophilomorph species (Myriapoda: Chilopoda) having twenty-seven leg-bearing segments, the lowest number recorded up to the present in the centipede order Geophilomorpha". Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia. 53 (13): 163–185 [183]. doi:10.1590/S0031-10492013001300001. hdl:11336/3449. ISSN 1807-0205.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Foddai, D. (1999-02-01). "A troglomorphic geophilomorph centipede from southern France (Chilopoda: Geophilomorpha: Geophilidae)". Journal of Natural History. 33 (2): 267–287 [278–280]. Bibcode:1999JNatH..33..267F. doi:10.1080/002229399300416. ISSN 0022-2933.
- ^ a b c d e Bonato, Lucio; Edgecombe, Gregory; Lewis, John; Minelli, Alessandro; Pereira, Luis; Shelley, Rowland; Zapparoli, Marzio (2010-11-18). "A common terminology for the external anatomy of centipedes (Chilopoda)". ZooKeys (69): 17–51. Bibcode:2010ZooK...69...17B. doi:10.3897/zookeys.69.737. ISSN 1313-2970. PMC 3088443. PMID 21594038.
- ^ Attems, Carl (1929). Attems, Karl (ed.). Lfg. 52 Myriapoda, 1: Geophilomorpha (in German). De Gruyter. pp. 190–191. doi:10.1515/9783111430638. ISBN 978-3-11-143063-8.
- ^ Minelli, Alessandro (1995). "The sternal pore areas of geophilomorph centipedes (Chilopoda: Geophilomorpha)". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 115 (2): 185–209 [188, 193]. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.1995.tb02327.x. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
- ^ Crabill, Ralph E. (1954). "A conspectus of the northeastern North American species of Geophilus (Chilopoda Geophilomorpha Geophilidae)". Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington. 56: 172–188 [174]. Retrieved 24 October 2021 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
- ^ Bonato, Lucio; Edgecombe, Gregory D.; Zapparoli, Marzio (2011). "Chilopoda – Taxonomic overview". In Minelli, Alessandro (ed.). The Myriapoda. Volume 1. Leiden: Brill. pp. 363–443 [414]. ISBN 978-90-04-18826-6. OCLC 812207443.