The Holarctic Centipede Subfamily Plutoniuminae 



(Chilopoda: Scolopendromorpha: Cryptopidae) (Nomen 



Correctum Ex Subfamily Plutoniinae Bollman, 1893) 



Rowland M. Shelley 



North Carolina State Museum of Natural Sciences, 



P. O. Box 29555, Raleigh, North Carolina 27626-0555, U.S.A. 



ABSTRACT — The Holarctic chilopod subfamily Plutoniuminae Bollman, 

 a corrected name for Plutoniinae, consists of two genera, Plutonium 

 Cavanna and Theatops Newport, and six species; synapomorphies 

 between them show that the subfamily is a monophyletic group and 

 that the different number of spiracles, 19 pairs in Plutonium and 

 9 pairs in Theatops, is only a generic-level character. Plutonium 

 and P. zwierleini Cavanna occur in Sicily, Sardinia, Napoli and Sorrento 

 provinces in mainland Italy, and Granada Province, Spain. Theatops 

 erythrocephalus (C. L. Koch) occurs along the eastern side of the 

 Adriatic Sea in the Balkan Peninsula and in coastal Spain and Portugal. 

 The other four species — T. posticus (Say), T. spinicaudus (Wood), 

 T. phanus Chamberlin, and T. californiensis Chamberlin — occur in 

 the United States and northwestern Mexico. Theatops posticus oc- 

 cupies a broad area east of the Central Plains from Connecticut and 

 southern New York to the south Florida keys and eastern Texas; 

 an allopatric western population extends from southwestern New Mexico 

 and western Chihuahua to the southern Great Basin, the Califor- 

 nia desert east of the Sierra Nevada, the Pacific Ocean in Baja California 

 Norte, the Channel Islands off the southern California coast, and 

 the eastern slope of the Coast Range near the latitude of San Francisco 

 Bay. Theatops spinicaudus occurs sympatrically with T. posticus in 

 two areas of the east; the inner surfaces of its caudal legs possess 

 variable series of ridges and teeth. Theatops phanus occurs in epigean 

 and subterranean environments in southern Texas and extends from 

 east of highway 1-35 to west of the Pecos River; the inner surfaces 

 of its caudal legs also possess variable series of ridges and teeth. 

 The distribution of T. californiensis, anatomically convergent with 

 T. erythrocephalus, is as described previously, but locality infor- 

 mation is detailed, as only one site, the type locality, is currently 

 known. Relationships among the plutoniuminine species are postu- 

 lated as P. zwierleini + (T. spinicau-dus + (T. phanus + (T erythrocephalus 

 + (T. posticus + T. californiensis)))). The Plutoniuminae and Cryptopinae 

 logically share ancestry, and the Scolopocryptopinae may warrant 

 elevation to family status. 



Brimleyana 24:51-113, April 1997 51 



