Taxonomic status and behavioural documentation of the troglobiont Lithobius matulici (Myriapoda, Chilopoda) from the Dinaric Alps: Are there semiaquatic centipedes in caves?

By

Dányi, László
Balázs, Gergely
Tuf, Ivan H.

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2019

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

848

Pages

1-20

Subjects

Balkan Peninsula , biospeleology , cave , Lithobiomorpha , redescription , semiaquatic lifestyle , synonymy

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.848.33084

 

Abstract

Lithobiusmatulici Verhoeff, 1899 is redescribed based on type material and newly collected specimens. Strandiolusjugoslavicus Hoffer, 1937, described from another cave in the same region in Bosnia and Hercegovina, is presented as a junior subjective synonym of L.matulici (syn. nov.). L.matulici is shown to be most closely related to Lithobiusremyi Jawłowski, 1933, type species of the subgenus Thracolithobius Matic, 1962. The completeness of the chitin-lines on the forcipular coxosternite is discussed as a promising character for interspecific differentiation within Lithobiomorpha. Documentation of hitherto unknown semiaquatic behaviour in L.matulici and other cave-dwelling centipede species from Herzegovinian-, Montenegrin- and Pyrenean caves is presented.