Cryptops

Description of spm 1 (data on spm 2 in square brackets, when relevant). 17 antennomeres. Head capsule with very subtle (hardly recognizable at x 87.5) but complete paramedian sutures [with half-complete paramedian sulci?] which clearly diverging from heads posterior margin; the latter is covered by tergite 1 (Fig. 40). Clypeus anteriorly with 2 setae (Fig. 41), without setose clypeal plates sensu Lewis (2005) (= they are not recognizable at x 87.5). Tergites 1 – 2 without sutures and sulci (Fig. 40), tergites 4 – 6 (7) with incomplete paramedian sutures posteriorly, from tergites (7) 8 these sutures become complete [tergites from 3 with well-developed complete paramedian sutures]. Sternites with median and transverse sutures equally developed in the anterior body half, without any trigonal sutures (sensu Lewis 2005). Tarsi of legs undivided, pretarsus with 2 small accessory spines. Small pore field approximately as long as ½ of coxopleuron. Femur of left ultimate leg with 1 saw tooth, femur of right one without [present on both femora]; tibia with four and tarsus 1 with two saw teeth (as ultimate legs of spm 1 are somewhat contorted we present a picture of spm 7 which has tibia with five and tarsus 1 with three saw teeth, Fig. 42). Prefemora, femora and tibiae of ultimate legs with paired apical dorso-distal teeth (“ Endz ӓhne ” sensu Attems (1930 )). Range. Myanmar, E Nepal (Sagarmatha National Park), W Nepal (Poon-Hill Ridge), India, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia (Tanah Rata), Indonesia (Java and Sumatra), Tonga Islands (Niuafo’ou Island), the Seychelles (Schileyko (2007), updated; Lewis (2013 )). Introduced into UK. To the above list we add also SW Australia (Collie), the Philippines (Luzon Island, Batad), E Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. Schileyko (2007: 88) recorded 1 exemplar of C. doriae (No. 6507) from “ Pacific Ocean, Luisiade Archipelago near New Guinea, Niuafoou Isl. ” following the original label, which read as “ Niuafoou, Louisiade Archipelago ”. In fact Niuafo’ou Island belongs to the Tonga Islands, so Louisiade Archipelago should be excluded from the species range. Variability. Studied specimens conform well to the description above, but only spm 1 has head capsule with well defined paramedian sutures. Spm 3 – 5, 7 have three setae at the place of setose clypeal plates. In general, the studied specimens have anterior margin of forcipular coxosternite with 2 + 2 submarginal setae. In adult spm 3, 7 and two additional specimens from Tonga and Philippines (No. 6507, 7493) pretarsal accessory spines of both legs and ultimate legs are not visible at x 87.5 (Fig. 42). Specimens 1 – 6 as well as the Australian one (No. 137 in NHMW) show no traces of dark pigmentation (Fig. 40) at tergites and pleurites, which fact cannot be explained by discoloration in alcohol, as our specimens are quite “ fresh-collected ”. In specimen 7 and two other additional specimens (No. 7124, 7493) this pigmentation welldeveloped (Fig. 43). In general, the sternal “ cruciform ” sutures are equally developed (Fig. 44), but in spm 5 the transverse suture seems to be more sclerotised than the median one.

Range. All tropical, subtropical and warm temperate regions. 8. Cryptops (C.) doriae Pocock, 1891 Figs 40 – 44

Remarks. Paramedian sutures of head capsule, which are very hardly visible only in spm 1, are not typical for this species but according to all other characters this specimen is also a typical C. doriae. In the studied specimens (as well as in No. 137 in NHMW) the tarsus of legs is not (or not definitely) divided in tarsus 1 and 2, this division being found instead in numerous Vietnamese specimens described by Schileyko (2007). So we confirm Lewis’ (2009) statement that this character (mono- vs bipartite leg tarsus) is quite subjective. We regard this character as not reliable as diagnostic for C. doriae and related species (i. e. C. nepalensis Lewis, 1999, C. niuensis Chamberlin, 1920, etc). See also Remarks to C. nepalensis below. In C. doriae the pretarsal accessory spines of both legs and ultimate legs may be absent, so this character should not be used as diagnostic.

Material. E Indonesia, West Papua Province, leg. DT: 1 ad + 1 sad [spm 3, СDT; spm 4, No. 7516; in both no ult. legs], S Bird’s Neck, Kaimana 47 km E, Triton bay, Kamaka (former Warika) village env., lake Kamakawalar and surroundings, 03 ° 46 ’ 22 ” S, 134 ° 12 ’ 02 ” E, 60 – 310 m, primeval lowland rainforest on limestone, 08.09.2010; 1 ad [spm 7, No. 7517], Doberai [= Bird’s Head] Peninsula, Arfak mts, Anggi Gigi Lake S env., Uper vill. & surroundings, 1 ° 18 ’ 09 ” S, 135 ° 54 ’ 07 ” E, 1890 – 2100 m, primary mid montane rainforest, 08.09.2015. Papua New Guinea, Western Province, [West Sepik District]: 1 sad + 1 juv [spm 1, 2], Mt. Fugilil, 2980 m, 29.09.1975, leg. PB, No. 10 804 in NMNHS; 1 juv [spm 6], Mt. Fugilil, the top, 3150 m, 29.08.1975, leg. PB, No. 10 805 in NMNHS; 1 juv [spm 5; no ult. legs], Bahrman Mts., from Finim Tel [Plateau] to the pass, 2260 – 2600 m, BSE [?], 1975, leg. PB & Ph. Chapman, No. 10 806 in NMNHS.

Description. The whole body covered by setae of various length; setae are considerably more numerous at forcipules, legs, margins of tergites and sternites, coxopleuron and ultimate sternite (Fig. 54). Head capsule with thin but well-developed complete paramedian sutures diverging frontwards, posterior margin covered by tergite 1 (Fig. 55). Clypeus with 2 setose clypeal plates: larger and well-limited rhomboid anterior one (which bears 3 setae) and very undefinitely developed minute posterior one (Fig. 56). Labrum with 1 tooth. Anterior margin of forcipular coxosternite with 5 + 5 marginal setae plus 3 + 3 setae on the coxosternite. Tarsungula very thin and long. Tergite 1 without sutures, tergites (6) 7 – 19 with paramedian sulci and sutures (the latter are visible from a certain angle of illumination). Sternites: transverse ridge between the coxae quite poorly developed (Fig. 57), trigonal sutures well recognizable at sternites 2 – 6. Katopleure not divided vertically; spiracles oval. Legs 3 – 30 with definitely divided tarsus (Fig. 54), accessory spines well-developed. Coxopleural pore field consists of ca 40 pores of various sizes and is bordered posteriorly by narrow poreless area (Fig. 54).

Figs 54 – 57

Remarks. The studied specimen resembles C. (T.) pictus Ribaut, 1923 in most characters except for the lack of dark pigmentation of tergites (Fig. 55), a character which is known to vary a lot in Cryptops. Maurienne et al. (2011) considered C. pictus as a species restricted to New Caledonia stating (p. 71): “ Cryptops pictus is more widely distributed than is represented by our sampling ”. This specimen has sternal transverse thickening between the coxae of legs less developed than in C. (T.) spinipes (Fig. 57), thus more resembling the sternal transverse suture of Cryptops s. str. The body and legs are less setose compared with C. (T.) spinipes. As the ultimate legs of the studied specimen are missing and important taxonomic characters are thus lost its true identity remains uncertain until further material is examined.

Material. Papua New Guinea, Western Province, [West Sepik District], Mt. Fugilil, the top, 3150 m, 1 ad [no ult. legs], 29.08.1975, leg. PB, No. 10 810 in NMNHS.

Figs 32, 33 Locus typicus: Brazil, São Paulo State, Santo André, Alto da Serra.

Diagnosis (based on adult ZMMU, Rc 7315). Body length up to 75 (!) mm. Cephalic plate with complete paramedian sutures. Clypeus with large rhomboid setose plate, which bears (at least) 3 long setae. Forcipular coxosternite with well-developed median suture as long as 1 / 3 length of coxosternite; anterior margin of coxosternite strongly bilobed with 6 + 6 enlarged marginal setae. Tergite 1 (Fig. 32) with anterior transverse suture and complete paramedian sutures, its anterior margin covered by cephalic plate; tergites 2 – 20 with complete paramedian sutures. Sternites 1 – 19 with incomplete (much shortened both anteriorly and posteriorly) median longitudinal sulcus, 2 – 19 ones with well-developed transverse sulcus (neither suture nor ridge) between the coxae. Sternites (4) 5 – 8 (9) with X-shaped trigonal sutures, sternites 5 – 8 with these sutures well-developed. Leg’s pretarsi with accessory spines well-developed, nearly as long as ½ length of corresponding pretarsus. Ultimate LBS: oval coxopleural pore field bordered posteriorly by a wide poreless area with two enlarged spur-like setae (Fig. 33) on posterior part of pore field and some setae on coxopleural posterior margin. Both the prefemur and femur of the ultimate legs have numerous long and enlarged (i. e., spur-like) setae medially and ventrally, like those of the coxopleuron. Ultimate femur with 1, tibia with 7 – 9 and tarsus 1 with 3 saw teeth. Range. Northeastern Argentina; Southeastern and Southern Brazil; also recorded by Bücherl (1939: 352, 1942: 324, 1974: 123 from Central (Mato Grosso and Amazonas States), Eastern (Goiás, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro States) and Southern (Sao Paolo and Paraná States) Brazil.

Remarks. As well as Scolopendra viridicornis, the species under discussion appears to be well known, but the only recent (very short) morphological data on it are of Ázara & Ferreira (2013: 442); the most recent mention is by Guizze et al. (2016), but it does not contain any useful data on morphology. Thus the most recent detailed morphological data on Cryptops (Trigonocryptops) iheringi belong to Ribaut (1913: 70), Attems (1930: 233) (who just repeated the original description and the data of Kraepelin 1903: 42) and to Bücherl (1939: 351). The later author gave a very detailed description (in German) and provided it with an informative fig. 19 of the right ultimate leg; on the same page 351 he reasonably synonymised C. (T.) triangulifer Verhoeff, 1937 with C. (T.) iheringi (this synonymy is omitted in Bonato et al. 2016). The only specimen at hand (adult ZMMU, Rc 7315) was recovered from a dry state and is therefore contorted and deformed, so the conditions of some delicate characters (for example the tergal and cephalic sutures) are difficult to observe. This adult has antennae consisting of 7 + 8 (!) much elongated articles (Fig. 32), of them two basal ones with a few long setae (literally “ glabrous ”) — we regard such unusual / abnormal structure / shape of antennae to be an obvious result of regeneration. This seems to be one of the largest (if not the largest) species of the subgenus Trigonocryptops (and of the genus Cryptops sensu lato) — we read in Chagas-Jr et al. (2014: 152): “ It is a large species of Cryptops, about 60 mm to 92 (!) mm long ”. According to the Chagas-Jr & Bichuette (2018: 28) this species is “ very common in southeastern and southern Brazil ”. Chagas-Jr et al. (2014: 149) wrote that “ … and Cryptops iheringi are excluded from the centipede fauna of Colombia because of misidentification [of Ribaut 1913] and lack of representatives in the collections examined ”.

Material. Argentina, Buenos Aires Province, Cueva del Torro, 1 ad. (ZMMU, Rc 7315).

Cryptops doriae Pocock, 1891 b: 421 Cryptops (C.) doriae — Attems, 1930: 214 Cryptops (C.) doriae — Attems, 1938: 338 Cryptops doriae — Attems, 1953: 138 Cryptops (C.) doriae — Schileyko, 1992: 8 Cryptops (C.) doriae — Schileyko, 1998: 262, 268 Cryptops (C.) doriae — Schileyko, 2001: 438 Cryptops (C.) doriae — Schileyko, 2007: 86, fig. 9 Cryptops (C.) doriae — Lewis, 2007: 15, figs 11 - 16 Cryptops (C.) audax — Schileyko, 1992: 7 Cryptops (C.) japonicus — Schileyko, 1998: 268 Cryptops (C.) japonicus — Schileyko, 2001: 439 Cryptops (C.) niuensis — Schileyko, 1998: 268 Cryptops (C.) niuensis — Schileyko, 2001: 438 Previous records. LAO CAI (Sa Pa; Hoang Lien NP); HAI PHONG (Cat Ba NP); QUANG NINH (Mong Cai; Dong Kho Island); DA NANG (Ba Na NP); QUANG NAM (Cu Lao Cham Island); KHANH HOA (Nha Trang; Hon Ba Mts.); GIA LAI (An Khe District, Buon Luoi); DAK LAK (Ban Me Thuat); LAM DONG (Da Lat, Langbian Mts.; D’ran; Di Linh); Tho Chu Island; Spratly Archipelago (Itu Aba Island) (Attems, 1938; Schileyko, 1992, 2007)

Remarks. Also known from Nepal; India; Myanmar; Cambodia; Laos; Indonesia; Papua New Guinea; Seychelles (Attems, 1930; Schileyko, 2007).

Cryptops (C.) tahitiana — Attems, 1930: 214 Cryptops (C.) tahitiana — Attems, 1953: 145, figs 12 – 14 Cryptops (C.) tahitiana — Schileyko, 2007: 90 Previous records. LAO CAI (Fansifan Mts.); PHU THO (Phu Ho); THUA THIEN HUE (Hue); DA NANG (Ba Na NP); LAM DONG (Langbian Mts.) (Attems, 1953).

Remarks. The species is originally known from India (Chamberlin, 1920). The records in Vietnam are doubtful, and need to be exactly confirmed (Schileyko, 2007).

Type species: Scolopendra hortensis Donovan, 1810, by monotypy.

Type species: Scolopendra hortensis Donovan, 1810, by monotypy.