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) Author Simaiakis, Stylianos Michail Natural History Museum of Crete, University of Crete, Knossos Av., Herakleion 71409, Crete, Greece. ssimaiakis@yahoo.com Author Edgecombe, Gregory D. Department of Earth Sciences, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW 7 5 BD, United Kingdom. text Zootaxa 2013 2013-11-05 3734 2 169 198 journal article 10.11646/zootaxa.3734.2.5 1175-5326 5275595 36ED88E6-2CEB-4071-8429-A39901B8B9BF 14. Rhysida paucidens Pocock, 1897 ( Figs 23–26 ) 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 ). 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 ), 5+5 forcipular teeth ( Fig. 24 ), 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 ), the coxopleural process with two apical spines but no dorsal or lateral spines ( Fig. 26 ), 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 ).