An annotated catalogue of the scutigeromorph centipedes in the collection of the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris (France) (Chilopoda: Scutigeromorpha)
Author
Stoev, Pavel
Author
Geoffroy, Jean-Jacques
text
Zootaxa
2004
635
1
12
journal article
10.5281/zenodo.158015
220d9260-6a4c-41ff-9cc1-0fd7682f8766
11755326
158015
AFC8F520-790F-4491-8E73-83AFCA3E58D5
Pselliodes rugosus
(
Newport, 1844
)
New Combination!
Cermatia rugosa
Newport, 1844
: 95
.
Type
locality:
Africa.
Type
:
number and sex unknown,
BMNH
.
Material examined:
The
MNHN
houses material from East Africa identified by H. Ribaut.
New record:
MOZAMBIQUE
: ad. M, Zambezi, Nova Choufanga near Chemba, P. Lesne leg., 1929.
General distribution:
Kenya
: Merifano. “near some pools of water a little to the west of Shebeli River”.
Mozambique
: Nova Choufanga near Chemba.
Remarks:
Newport (1844)
described
Cermatia rugosa
from Africa without specifying the exact locality. Since then this species has been reported only by
Gray (1844)
,
Newport (1845
,
1856
),
Gervais (1847)
and
Pocock (1896
,
1899
). Its identity is not as yet entirely clear, although it certainly belongs to the genus
Pselliodes
Chamberlin, 1921
, and perhaps is identical with some (if not all) of the species described by
Verhoeff (1905b)
from East Africa and almost indistinguishable from each other. However, whether it is a good species can only be established after a reexamination of the
types
of Verhoeff and Newport, fortunately these are still preserved in the collections of the ZMB and the BMNH. We formalize here the following new combination:
Cermatia rugosa
Newport, 1844
=
Pselliodes rugosus
(
Newport, 1844
)
. It should be noted that
Scutigera rugosa
reported by
Porath (1871)
from
South Africa
, a record repeated by
Attems (1928)
is not identical with
Pselliodes rugosus
(
Newport, 1844
)
(cf.
Pocock, 1893
). Having access to the
types
of Newport, and also to new material from the same region of Africa (Cape Town), Pocock recognised that his specimens and Porath’s differed significantly from Newport’s
Cermatia rugosa
, and described them as a new species,
Scutigera planiceps
. Its
type
locality (
South Africa
: Cape Town: Simon’s Bay) is, at present, part of the range of only two scutigeromorphs – the widespread subcosmopolitan synantrope of European origin
Scutigera coleoptrata
, and the autochthonous
Scutigerina weberi
Silvestri, 1903
. The original description of
Scutigera planiceps
excludes the possibility that it is conspecific with
coleoptrata
, but shows it to have the external characters of
Scutigerina weberi
. However, in order to formalize this synonymy the
type
of
S. planiceps
, currently preserved in the collection of the BMNH (specimen
10 mm
long, most legs missing but antennae still attached, the registered number BM1891.5.18.1, Paul Hillyard, in lit.), should be studied.