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Cormocephalus elegans

Cormocephalus elegans

Kraepelin, 1903

GBIF:183227566

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ABOUT

Descriptions(4)

Dimensions. Länge bis [length up to] 85 mm.
Thofern, Detlef, Dupérré, Nadine, Harms, Danilo (2021): An annotated type catalogue of the centipedes (Myriapoda: Chilopoda) held in the Zoological Museum Hamburg. Zootaxa 4977 (1): 1-103, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4977.1.1
Kraepelin 1903: 206 – 207 (as Cormocephalus elegans n. sp.)
Thofern, Detlef, Dupérré, Nadine, Harms, Danilo (2021): An annotated type catalogue of the centipedes (Myriapoda: Chilopoda) held in the Zoological Museum Hamburg. Zootaxa 4977 (1): 1-103, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4977.1.1
Type locality and specimens. Transvaal (Lydenburg, Missionsstation Mphome).
Thofern, Detlef, Dupérré, Nadine, Harms, Danilo (2021): An annotated type catalogue of the centipedes (Myriapoda: Chilopoda) held in the Zoological Museum Hamburg. Zootaxa 4977 (1): 1-103, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4977.1.1
Type material. Syntypes 3. SOUTH AFRICA: Mpumalanga Province: (ZMH-A 0000589, ZMH-A 0009267), Lydenburg (today Mashishing) [ca. 25 ° 05 ’ S, 30 ° 26 ’ E]; (ZMH-A 0009268), Haenertsburg (Mphone Missionary Sta- tion) [ca. 23 ° 56 ’ S, 29 ° 57 ’ E]. Preservation. 2 jars. Jar 1 (ZMH-A 0000589, ZMH-A 0009267): Label. Cormoceph. elegans Krpln ex Typis Lydenburg Transvaal Mus. Berlin C. 25. V. 03. (Kraepelin handwriting). Jar 2 (ZMH-A 0009268): Label. Cormo. elegans Krpln Mphome […] Transvaal. Mus. Berlin 25. V. 03. (Kraepelin handwriting). Old type catalogues. Weidner (1960), p. 65, No. 16. Paratypes 3. Type status. Weidner (1960: 65) listed 2 paratypes from Lydenburg and 1 paratype from the “ Missionsstation Mphome ”. All specimens are syntypes. Additional material. There are syntypes from Transvaal at the ZMB (no. 3472, 3481 – 82, 3647). Collection remarks. The Mission Station Mphone, based in the South African town of Haenertsburg (near Lydenburg), was established by the Berliner Missionsgesellschaft. The specimens originate from the ZMB collections. Taxonomic remarks. Lawrence (1955: 159) synonymized this species as a subspecies of C. westwoodi (C. westwoodi elegans) which was synonymized with C. westwoodi by Koch (1983: 828). Current systematic position. Junior synonym of Cormocephalus westwoodi (Newport, 1844) according to Lawrence (1955).
Thofern, Detlef, Dupérré, Nadine, Harms, Danilo (2021): An annotated type catalogue of the centipedes (Myriapoda: Chilopoda) held in the Zoological Museum Hamburg. Zootaxa 4977 (1): 1-103, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4977.1.1

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CLASSIFICATION

Taxonomic Classification Tree

AnimaliaArthropodaChilopodaScolopendromorphaScolopendridaeCormocephalusCormocephalus elegans

Occurrences with images

Source Information

An annotated type catalogue of the centipedes (Myriapoda: Chilopoda) held in the Zoological Museum Hamburg

checklist

This dataset contains the digitized treatments in Plazi based on the original journal article Thofern, Detlef, Dupérré, Nadine, Harms, Danilo (2021): An annotated type catalogue of the centipedes (Myriapoda: Chilopoda) held in the Zoological Museum Hamburg. Zootaxa 4977 (1): 1-103, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4977.1.1

Abstract

Centipedes (Myriapoda: Chilopoda) are carnivorous arthropods that live in leaf litter and soil habitats on all continents except Antarctica. Roughly 3,300 species have been described to date but the taxonomy is still progressing and requires a thorough documentation of type material and type deposits. In this paper we provide an annotated catalogue of the centipede type collection at the Zoological Museum (ZMH) in Hamburg. This collection comprises 490 type specimens belonging to 141 taxa originally described as species, subspecies and varieties. More than half of these taxa were described by the pioneering myriapodologists Carl Graf Attems (Vienna) and Karl Kraepelin (Hamburg). The collection includes material representing 93 valid species or subspecies and contains specimens predominantly from Australia (33%), Asia (22%), Africa (20%) and South America (20%). Taxonomically, the focus is on the centipede orders Scolopendromorpha (56 valid species) and Geophilomorpha (28 valid species) with fewer types for the Lithobiomorpha (8 species). A total of 48 taxa (34% of type species) have been synonymized since they were originally described and the type material for 12 additional species at the ZMH is lost. We provide a brief historical overview of this collection from its origin at the Museum Godeffroy and the Johanneum in Hamburg, including the most relevant taxonomists and collectors, followed by an annotated taxonomic catalogue with details on all species that are or were represented by type material.

Thofern D, Dupérré N, Harms D, plazi (2021). An annotated type catalogue of the centipedes (Myriapoda: Chilopoda) held in the Zoological Museum Hamburg. Plazi.org taxonomic treatments database. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4977.1.1 accessed via GBIF.org on 2026-06-14.

CC0Published 5/27/2021View dataset
GBIF Usage Key
183227566
Dataset Key
b2e605e3-bf11-45a8-a175-ce716bccb00b
Origin
source
Backbone Key
2231795
Taxon ID
ED42878659669847D18D8A4E747D9ADE.taxon
Last Crawled
6/10/2026
Last Interpreted
6/10/2026
View on GBIFSource Reference