Species diversity of Strigamia Gray, 1843 (Chilopoda: Linotaeniidae): a preliminary synthesis
Author
Bonato, Lucio
Author
Dányi, László
Author
Socci, Antonio Augusto
Author
Minelli, Alessandro
text
Zootaxa
2012
3593
1
39
journal article
10.5281/zenodo.214898
cd374ebf-49cd-4e50-b6d2-e6b592fdb07a
1175-5326
214898
Strigamia epileptica
Wood, 1862
Synonyms:
Scolioplanes imperialis
Brölemann, 1896
;
Linotaenia rubelliana
Chamberlin, 1904
.
References for morphology:
Wood 1862
,
1865
;
Brölemann 1896
(sub
Scolioplanes imperialis
);
Chamberlin 1904
(sub
Linotaenia rubelliana
), 1912b (sub
Linotaenia laevipes
), 1954.
Taxonomic notes. Described originally as a species of
Strigamia
, it was then assigned also to
Linotaenia
,
Scolioplanes
or
Tomotaenia
.
Chamberlin (1912b
,
1954
,
1963
) considered
S. epileptica
as identical with two other species described by Wood in the same paper (
Wood 1862
), namely
S. laevipes
and
S. parviceps
, and adopted first
S. laevipes
and later
S. parviceps
as the valid name for the species. Conversely,
Crabill (1954a
,
1962a
) suggested adopting
S. epileptica
as the valid name because
S. parviceps
is actually of uncertain taxonomic position (see below under “Uncertain species”), while he did not take into account
S. laevipes
. Subsequent catalogues followed either Chamberlin’s later opinion (
Kevan 1983
;
Mercurio 2010
) or Crabill’s (
Hoffman 1995
). We agree with Crabill’s proposal in selecting
S. epileptica
as the valid name of the species, because it remains uncertain whether the name
S. parviceps
was originally applied to the same species (see below), whereas
S. laevipes
is recognized here as a distinct species.
Scolioplanes imperialis
was described by
Brölemann (1896)
and
Linotaenia rubelliana
by
Chamberlin (1904)
. Both were considered identical to
S. epileptica
by
Chamberlin (1912b)
, who confirmed this opinion after examining the
holotype
of
S. epileptica
(
Chamberlin 1954
,
1963
), irrespective of the fact that he did not adopt
S. epileptica
as the valid name of the species (see above). Instead,
Attems (1929)
maintained both
S. imperialis
and
L. rubelliana
as distinct valid species, and
Crabill (1962a)
considered them of uncertain identity. The synonymy is confirmed here for both species because their
type
specimens, based on the published descriptions (
Brölemann 1896
;
Chamberlin 1904
,
1963
) are fully congruent with
S. epileptica
, also in some major diagnostic features of the latter including number of legs, aspect of pleuropretergite, shape of ultimate metasternite and arrangement of coxal pores.
Distribution: most of the western part of North
America
, along the Rocky Mountains, between British
Columbia
and California. Published records from more eastern regions need confirmation, because of possible confusion with other species.