52 Rowland M. Shelley 



GENERAL INTRODUCTION 



Introduction 

 Among the more readily identified scolopendromorph centipedes 

 in North America and Europe, ones with 21 or 23 pairs of legs and 

 pedal segments, are the representatives of the cryptopid subfamily Pluto- 

 niuminae Bollman, 1 a senior subjective synonym of Theatopinae Verhoeff, 

 occasionally misspelled as "Theatopsinae." 2 Recognizable to the unaided 

 eye by their extremely robust ultimate legs (Fig. 1; see also Attems 

 1926, Fig. 433, and Shelley 1990a, Fig. 1), they also feature 21 leg 

 pairs, a long caudal segment, roughly twice as long as the penultimate, 



Fig. 1. Theatops posticus, dorsal view. Scale line = 1.00 cm. 



and pale, lightly pigmented patches in the ocellar positions, lateral to 

 the bases of the antennae. Crabill (1977) referred to the patches as 

 "eyespots," an unfortunate term because these blind chilopods lack photoreceptors. 

 The heavily sclerotized, forcipulate caudal legs are the most visible diagnostic 

 feature, and according to Cloudsley-Thompson (1958) and Manton (1965), 

 function to hold food. The plutoniuminines are thus convergent in this 

 regard with the scolopendrid genus Cupipes Kohlrausch (compare Figs. 

 2-5, with Figs. 6-9). 



The Plutoniuminae is comprised of two genera — Plutonium Cavanna, 

 monotypic with P. zwierleini Cavanna occurring in Spain and mainland 

 Italy, Sicily, and Sardinia, and Theatops Newport, with one Palearctic 



! As noted by Wurmli (1975), Plutoniinae Bollman (1893) has priority by 13 years over 

 Theatopinae Verhoeff (1906) as the senior name for this family-group taxon. However, 

 Plutoniinae Bollman is preoccupied by the senior homonym, Plutoniinae Cockerell (1893) 

 (Mollusca: Gastropoda), which has priority by one month. Shelley and Backeljau (1995) 

 petitioned the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature to remove the homonymy 

 but incorrectly believed Plutoniinae Bollman was the older name. By agreement of all 

 parties, Plutoniinae Bollman is being emended to "Plutoniuminae"; this decision will be 

 announced in a forthcoming issue of Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature. The present 

 contribution is the first taxonomic usage of the corrected name. 



2 Confusion has existed as to formation of family-group names from genera with the 

 "-ops" suffix, whether the "s" is retained or dropped. The genitive of this ending is "opis", 

 of which the "is" is dropped to form family-group names, so the correct spelling is "Theatopinae" 

 rather than "Theatopsinae." 



