Mecistocephalus evansi

Taxonomic and nomenclatural notes. The first specimen of Mecistocephalus Newport, 1843 found in Israel was referred by Verhoeff (1925) to a subspecies whose type locality was in Australia. The record was then reinterpreted tentatively by Zapparoli (1991) as possibly due to a misidentification of Pachymerium ferrugineum. However, after finding other Mecistocephalus specimens from Israel, Zapparoli (1995) confirmed Verhoeff’s generic identification, and referred the specimens to M. insularis (Lucas 1863), which inhabits the Arabian peninsula and more southern regions (Lewis 1986). After examining new specimens from Israel and reconsidering the little information given by previous authors, we are confident in recognizing all specimens of Mecistocephalus found in Israel as belonging to M. evansi. The latter species was described from Iraq (Brölemann 1922) and is easily distinguished from most other Mecistocephalus species by having invariantly 51, rather than 49, pairs of legs.

Distribution in Israel: most specimens are from cool Mediterranean regions of the Galilee, with average annual temperatures between 15 – 20 ˚ C and annual precipitations between 450 – 950 mm (Figure 3 F). One exception is from Be’er Sheva, and we suspect this may be due to an anthropogenic transfer, and have not included it in the presumptive distribution. Global distribution: the species is known from Israel and Iraq.

New records: Be’er Sheva (1 specimen 2011); Gush Halav (1 specimen 1963); Mt. Qadarim (2 specimens 2011); Mt. Meron (1 specimen 2011); Upper Nahal ‘ Amud (1 specimen 2011).