Centipede Subfamily Plutoniuminae 75 



Type specimen. Holotype (NHM) collected by T. Say on an unknown 

 date in the winter of 1818, possibly near Picolata, St. Johns County, 

 Florida. According to Weiss and Ziegler (1931), Say and friends visited 

 Florida in the winter of 1818, traveling overland by carriage to Charleston, 

 then by boat to Savannah, then by smaller boat through the "sea islands" 

 of Georgia. After stopping at Fernandina, on Amelia Island, Florida, 

 they proceeded up the St. Johns River to Picolata, where they disembarked 

 and crossed by foot to St. Augustine to present their papers to the 

 Spanish governor. Because of hostile indians, he advised against traveling 

 farther upriver, so they returned to Picolata, sailed back to the coast 

 and, eventually, Charleston. The type of C. postica was collected on 

 this trip somewhere in Georgia or Florida, and although the party 

 stopped repeatedly on the islands of Georgia, including a few days 

 on Cumberland Island, they were ashore for the longest time in the 

 area of Picolata/St. Augustine, the most likely site for the collection. 

 Picolata exists today as a small community on the river along St. 

 Johns County Highway 13, ca. 25.3 km (15.8 mi) west of St. Augustine. 

 According to Underwood (1887) and Pocock (1888), Say sent some 

 or all of the type specimens of his myriapods to Leach in Britain, 

 who deposited them in the NHM, and according to Newport (1845) 

 and Pocock (1888), there was only one specimen of C. postica in 

 this shipment, making it the holotype. 



Diagnosis. Ultimate tergite with complete, median suture; ultimate 

 legs dorsally without distomedial prefemoral spurs (Fig. 6); ultimate 

 prefemora and femora with or without relatively short, "weak," ventral 

 spurs, when present, usually less than four spurs total or one per podomere; 

 caudal coxopleurae with borders apically rounded, at most only slightly 

 elevated and extended, without apical teeth (Fig. 2; Shelley 1990a, 

 Figs. 5-12). 



Variation. The eastern population lacks ventral spurs on the caudal 

 legs, and the coxopleurae are flat and not extended caudad. Variation 

 of the coxopleurae and the ventral surfaces of the ultimate legs in 

 the southwestern population is discussed by Shelley (1990a). 



Ecology. In the east, I have found T. posticus primarily in moist 

 deciduous litter, occasionally in pine litter, and rarely under rocks 

 and logs (Shelley 1987, 1990a); specimens may also be encoundered 

 under large rocks in rather dry sites (Hoffman, in lift.). The southwestern 

 population, which inhabits deserts and arid biotopes, has been encountered 

 under rocks, logs, wood debris, and cattle dung (Shelley 1990a). Even 

 the Stanislaus County, California, locality is arid, for it is on the eastern 

 slope of the Coast Range and in the rain shadow of these mountains. 



