Records of the Western Australian Museum 18: 333-346 (1998). 
On the species of Tiioba (Chilopoda: Geophilomorpha) in Australia, 
New Zealand, New Caledonia, Solomon Islands and New Britain 
R. E. Jones 
14 Post Office Road, Dersingham, King's Lynn, Norfolk PE31 6HP, England 
Abstract - The centipede genus Tuoba is reexamined in the Australasian 
region and four species are found to occur: Tuoba sydneyensis, T. laticeps T. 
xylophaga and a new species T. pallida from Western Australia. 
INTRODUCTION 
The taxonomy of the geophilomorph centipedes 
found in the littoral zone in Australia has a long 
and sometimes confusing history. Pocock (1891) 
described Geophilus sydneyensis from Port Jackson 
and G. (?) laticeps from King Island, (the (?) 
presumably noting that he had strong doubts about 
the genus) and then he transferred both species to 
Necrophloeophagns only ten years later (Pocock 
1901). Specimens from Western Australia referable 
to both Necrophloeoplmgus sydneyensis and N. laticeps 
were then described by Attems (1911) as G. 
hartmeyeri. The latter was placed in Nesogeophilus 
Verhoeff 1924 by Attems (1929), who applied the 
genus name to a group of coastal centipedes with a 
virtually world-wide distribution. Often all the 
species were listed in a work with no attempt to 
work out the proper synonyms. Crabill (1962) 
synonymised Nesogeophilus hartmeyeri and 
Necrophloeoplmgus laticeps as Nesogeophilus laticeps, 
but said nothing about Necrophloeophagus 
sydneyensis. 
Geophilus xylophagus, described from New 
Zealand by Attems (1903), was redescribed by 
Archey (1936), who unfortunately based his 
concept of the species on a mixture of G. xylophagus 
and two species now placed in Tasmanophilus 
Chamberlin 1920. Crabill (1968) showed that 
Nesogeophilus Verhoeff is a junior subjective 
synonym of Tuoba Chamberlin, a genus erected for 
Tuoba curticeps from the Solomon Islands, originally 
referred to the Gonibregmatidae (Chamberlin 
1920). Crabill (1968) also synonymised G. 
xylophagus incorrectly with Tuoba laticeps. In letters 
written to the Tasmanian Museum and R. Mesibov 
in the 1970's, the late Dr Crabill showed an interest 
in Tasmanian specimens of Tuoba but was 
unwilling to name the local forms. 
In his work on the myriapods of New Caledonia, 
Brolemann (1931) described a species found there 
as Algerophilus leptochilus. He also suggested that 
Geophilus xylophagus and G. hartmeyeri should be 
included in the same group. A further species 
mentioned by Brolemann (1931) is G. duponti 
(Silvestri, 1897). I have seen this species and it is a 
completely different genus and not a Tuoba. 
Demange (1963) showed that A. leptochilus should 
really be called Nesogeophilus leptochilus and later 
(1981) stated that it also occurred around the 
Seychelles. 
In searching through the literature in the quest 
for Tuoba and in 'disentangling' Tuoba from 
Tasmanophilus for a revision of the latter genus, I 
have examined types and unidentified material 
from Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, New 
Caledonia, New Britain and the Solomon Islands. 
Here I redescribe Tuoba sydneyensis, T. laticeps and 
T. xylophaga, describe T. pallida sp. nov. from 
Western Australia and establish new synonymies 
for Nesogeophilus leptochilus and Tuoba curticeps. The 
morphological terms used are mainly those 
adopted by Eason (1964) and by Crabill (1968). 
The following abbreviations are used: 
AMNZ Auckland Institute and Museum, 
Auckland, New Zealand 
BMNH British Museum Natural History, 
London, Great Britain 
MCZ Museum of Comparative Zoology, 
Harvard, U.S.A. 
NMW Naturhistorisches Museum, Wien, 
Austria 
QVM Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, 
Tasmania, Australia 
TM Tasmanian Museum, Hobart, Tasmania, 
Australia 
WAM Western Australian Museum, Perth, 
Western Australia, Australia 
ZIMH Zoologisches Institut und Museum, 
Hamburg, Germany 
