The centipede family Anopsobiidae new to North America, with the description of a new genus and species and notes on the Henicopidae of North America and the Anopsobiidae of the Northern Hemisphere (Chilopoda, Lithobiomorpha)
Author
Shear, William A.
text
Zootaxa
2018
4422
2
259
283
journal article
29146
10.11646/zootaxa.4422.2.6
47816d99-6645-43ad-a52d-33cc68a6a7c7
1175-5326
1455619
F6658C2B-9681-430A-8975-7B3AE2C233EE
Genus
Lamyctes
Meinert, 1868
Hollington & Edgecombe (2004)
placed
Lamyctes
in a well-supported phylogenetic group with
Henicops
and
Paralamyctes
.
While
Lamyctes
species are found on all continents except
Antarctica
and on many oceanic islands,
Henicops
is limited to
Australia
,
New Zealand
and
New Caledonia
and
Paralamyctes
is found in
Australia
,
New Zealand
, southern South America,
India
,
Madagascar
, and
South Africa
(
Hollington & Edgecombe 2004
).
The worldwide distribution of
Lamyctes
is mainly, if not entirely, due to two or three
Lamyctes
species spread by human agency, and most populations probably have thelytokous parthenogenesis—accounting for the ease of distribution (
Enghoff 1975
;
Enghoff
et al.
2013
; Iorio 2016). There are 42 currently recognized species of
Lamyctes
(
Bonato
et al
. 2016
)
. Of these,
Lamyctes emarginatus
Newport is found in continental North America, and
L. coeculus
Brölemann
and
L. africanus
(Porat)
have been reported from Hawaii (hence not included in the key). The USNM has
L. coeculus
specimens from the early 20th century intercepted at quarantine in Norfolk, Virginia, Houma, Louisiana, and Boston, Massachusetts. Auerbach (1952) reported it from a greenhouse in Urbana, Illinois, but there is no other documentation of any established populations of this species in North America north of Mexico (but see the discussion below of
Buethobius translucens
Williams & Hefner, 1928
).
Unlike the blind
L. coeculus
,
all of the recorded North American species have a single ocellus on each side of the head. Interspecific similarities in the coxal pore formulae and antennomere counts are within the range of variation found in
L. emarginatus
(see Zapparoli &
Shelley 2000
), and raise the question as to how many of the supposed species from North America may really be distinct.
Mercurio (2010)
expressed the opinon that
L. tivius
,
L. pius
and
L. pinampus
are synonyms of
L. emarginatus
,
and the same may be true of
L. diffusus
and
L. caducens
(these latter two were incompletely described from single specimens), leaving no native
Lamyctes
species in North America. No male specimens of any of Chamberlin’s species have been reported. Indeed, the existence of any endemic species of
Lamyctes
in the Northern Hemisphere is questionable. It is worth noting that of the 42 species currently recognized, only four (aside from
L. africanus
,
L. coeculus
and
L. emarginatus
,
the anthropochoric species) have been described from the Northern Hemisphere outside North America, three of these from islands (
Bonato
et al.
2016
). It is very likely that these four northern hemisphere nominal species, as well as the North American species described by Chamberlin, may be synonyms of one or the other of the three “hitchhikers.”