Pselliodes rugosus ( Newport, 1844 )

Stoev, Pavel & Geoffroy, Jean-Jacques, 2004, An annotated catalogue of the scutigeromorph centipedes in the collection of the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris (France) (Chilopoda: Scutigeromorpha), Zootaxa 635, pp. 1-12 : 9

Pselliodes rugosus ( Newport, 1844) New Combination!

Cermatia rugosa Newport, 1844: 95 .

Type locality: Africa.

Type: number and sex unknown, BMNH.

Material examined: The MNHN houses material from East Africa identified by H. Ribaut.

New record: MOZAMBIQUE: ad. M, Zambezi, Nova Choufanga near Chemba, P. Lesne leg., 1929.

General distribution: Kenya: Merifano. “near some pools of water a little to the west of Shebeli River”. Mozambique: Nova Choufanga near Chemba.

Remarks: Newport (1844) described Cermatia rugosa from Africa without specifying the exact locality. Since then this species has been reported only by Gray (1844), Newport (1845, 1856), Gervais (1847) and Pocock (1896, 1899). Its identity is not as yet entirely clear, although it certainly belongs to the genus Pselliodes Chamberlin, 1921 , and perhaps is identical with some (if not all) of the species described by Verhoeff (1905b) from East Africa and almost indistinguishable from each other. However, whether it is a good species can only be established after a re­examination of the types of Verhoeff and Newport, fortunately these are still preserved in the collections of the ZMB and the BMNH. We formalize here the following new combination: Cermatia rugosa Newport, 1844 = Pselliodes rugosus ( Newport, 1844) . It should be noted that Scutigera rugosa reported by Porath (1871) from South Africa, a record repeated by Attems (1928) is not identical with Pselliodes rugosus ( Newport, 1844) (cf. Pocock, 1893). Having access to the types of Newport, and also to new material from the same region of Africa (Cape Town), Pocock recognised that his specimens and Porath’s differed significantly from Newport’s Cermatia rugosa , and described them as a new species, Scutigera planiceps . Its type locality ( South Africa: Cape Town: Simon’s Bay) is, at present, part of the range of only two scutigeromorphs – the widespread subcosmopolitan synantrope of European origin Scutigera coleoptrata , and the autochthonous Scutigerina weberi Silvestri, 1903 . The original description of Scutigera planiceps excludes the possibility that it is conspecific with coleoptrata , but shows it to have the external characters of Scutigerina weberi . However, in order to formalize this synonymy the type of S. planiceps , currently preserved in the collection of the BMNH (specimen 10 mm long, most legs missing but antennae still attached, the registered number BM1891.5.18.1, Paul Hillyard, in lit.), should be studied.