Geophilus alpinus

Geophilus alpinus Meinert, 1870

Geophilus insculptus Attems, 1895: Minelli 1978: 157. (1)

Geophilus insculptus Attems, 1895: Foddai et al. 1996: 361, Tab. I. (2)

Geophilus insculptus Attems, 1895: Geoffroy and Iorio 2009: 686. (3)

Literature records.

General. Sardinia-Corsica (1). Corsica (2, 3).

Remarks.

European species also recorded in North Africa (Maghreb). Geophilus alpinus is present in Sardinia, where epigeic populations are known from Quercus ilex woods, Mediterraneanshrubs and maquis, from sea level to 1000 m; sometimes in caves (Zapparoli 2009); the presence of this species in Corsica (sub Geophilus insculptus Attems, 1895), has to be confirmed.

Geophilus insculptus has been recently considered identical to Geophilus alpinus, and Geophilus alpinus has been explicitly adopted as the valid name for this species (Spelda 1999, 2005). Nevertheless, this adoption is still more or less under discussion within the myriapodological community (Berg et al. 2008, Barber 2009, Lock 2010). Here, we follow Bonato and Minelli’s (2009) view that Geophilus alpinus is a valid species.