Identification of two new species of Mecistocephalus (Chilopoda, Geophilomorpha, Mecistocephalidae) from southern China and the re-description of Mecistocephalus smithii Pocock, 1895

By

Pan, Yangyang
Fan, Jiabo
You, Chun-Xue
Jiang, Chao

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2024

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

1218

Pages

1--23

Subjects

COI , Phylogeny , Taxonomic key , taxonomy

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1218.130709

 

Abstract

Mecistocephalus Newport, 1843 is the most diverse genus in the family Mecistocephalidae; however, only two species have been recorded in mainland China to date. Therefore, taxonomic research on Chinese Mecistocephalus needs further research. In this study, the species diversity of Mecistocephalus in southern China was investigated using the mitochondrial marker COI integrated with morphological evidence. Species delimitation using Automatic Barcode Gap Discovery, Poisson Tree Processes, and phylogenetic and morphological analyses revealed ten species, including two newly described species, M. chuensis Jiang & You, sp. nov. and M. huangi Jiang & You, sp. nov. Furthermore, based on newly collected specimens, the presence of the little-known species M. smithii Pocock, 1895 was confirmed in China and thoroughly re-described.