106 Rowland M. Shelley 



the only European cryptopid genus is Cryptops Leach (Cryptopinae), 

 which also has 21 leg pairs and pedal segments, with slightly enlarged 

 caudal legs. The Cryptopinae, a global taxon, also is indigenous to 

 the Nearctic, whereas the other cryptopid subfamily, the Scolopocryptopinae, 

 with narrow caudal legs and 23 leg pairs and pedal segments, is primarily 

 a New World group with minor representation along the western Pacific 

 Rim from Japan to New Guinea (Attems 1930). The Plutoniuminae 

 and Cryptopinae therefore logically share ancestry and may antedate 

 the Scolopocryptopinae, whose concentration in the Americas suggests 

 a post-Laurasian origin. Its diversity and abundance in North and South 

 America probably reflect considerable northward and southward dispersal 

 after closure of the Panamanian portal, and the occurrence of Scolopo- 

 cryptops Newport in Japan, Korea, and China surely represents a Pleistocene 

 invasion of Asia via the Bering Land Bridge. However, this genus 

 and the subfamily also occur in the Philippines, Viet Nam, New Guinea, 

 Sulawesi, and the Sunda and Fiji Islands (Attems 1930, Schileyko 

 1995), and their existences in these areas, if native and not the result 

 of introductions, hardly represent trans-Beringian dispersal. With this 

 circum-Pacific distribution, the Scolopocryptopinae may be a chilopod 

 analog to the diplopod family Cambalidae (order Spirostreptida), whose 

 biogeography was attributed to the lost continent "Pacifica" by Jeekel 

 (1985). Not nearly enough is known about scolopocryptopinine bio- 

 geography to further explore this possibility, but it raises questions 

 about the composition of the Cryptopidae, because an independent bio- 

 geography for the Scolopocryptopinae implies a different origin and 

 phylogeny. This in turn implies that concordance with the Cryptopinae 

 and Plutoniuminae in the absence of ocelli represents convergence rather 

 than shared ancestry; consequently, the Scolopocryptopinae may merit 

 separate family status. 



The prevailing concept of the Scolopendromorpha recognizes two 

 families, Scolopendridae and Cryptopidae, based primarily on the presence 

 and absence, respectively, of four ocelli on each side of the cephalic 

 plate. Schileyko (1992) proposed a new arrangement derived in part 

 from that of Haase (1887), but this system is incomplete, omitting 

 at least three cryptopid genera, Dinocryptops Crabill (1953), Thalkethops 

 Crabill (1960), and Ectonocryptops Crabill (1977). Furthermore, it is 

 not based on a rigorous assessment of shared, derived features, so there 

 is no assurance that the groupings are monophyletic lineages representing 

 true lines of affinity. Many more alpha- and beta-level generic studies 

 must be conducted in the Scolopendromorpha before the families can 

 be reappraised and subjected to an intensive cladistic analysis, but no 

 longer should the present division, based primarily on the presence or 



