Lithobius karamani Verhoeff, 1937

Stoev, Pavel, 2005, On the identity of some poorly known lithobiid centipedes described by Karl Verhoeff (Chilopoda: Lithobiomorpha), Zootaxa 796, pp. 1-12 : 7-10

Lithobius karamani Verhoeff, 1937

Figs 7–13, 16

Lithobius karamani Verhoeff, 1937: 215 , sub Lithobius karamanus on page 236, Abb. 66. Lithobius karamani: Attems, 1959: 295 .

Lithobius karamani: Moritz & Fischer, 1979: 320 .

Lithobius karamani: Kos, 1992: 356 .

Lithobius karamani: Stoev, 1997: 100 ; 2001: 105.

Material examined: Type material: female syntype mounted on a slide ZSM No. A20030733, labelled: “ Lithobius karamani Verh. Skoplje , Female” ­ lectotype by present designation; male syntype mounted on a slide No. 3475, Coll. Verhoeff, labelled “Skopje, Südserbien, ZMB No. 13 549”; two males in spirit, labelled “ Lithobius karamani Ve rh. Macedonien, ZMB No. 13 288”; four males and two females preserved in spirit, ZSM No. A20044776 (J. Spelda, in litt.), paralectotypes by present designation. The illustration of the female gonopodial claw and spurs in the original species description ( Verhoeff, 1937: 236, Abb. 66) is most likely based on the female syntype (No. A20030733) from the ZSM, which is a reason for its present designation as lectotype.

Other material: Republic of Macedonia: 3 adult females, Pelister Mountain, Tsaparska preseka, 1500 m, under stones, 20.04.2002, S. Lazarov leg., NMNHS; adult male, Mariovo Mountain, Manastir Area, 652–655 m, very dry soil, 28.05.2003, Lat. 41°10’46”N; Long. 21°44’32”E, UTM: EL65, Ch. Deltshev & G. Blagoev leg., NMNHS.

Re­description: Length: ca 16 mm. Colour: light brown­reddish, head, antennae and hind tergites darker. Head: almost as long as broad; as broad as T. 3 and narrower than T. 4; posterior border straight; anterior transverse suture with posterior limbs present; posterior cephalic thickening present. Antennae: generally short, reaching aneterior margin of tergite 5 or slightly longer, composed of 30–33 short articles; ultimate article about 2.0–2.2 times longer than penultimate ( Fig. 7 ). Ocelli: 9–13; 1+5+4+3–1+4+4+3; 1+4+3+2– 1+3+3+2. Tömösváry organs: equal in size to ocelli. Maxillipede: with moderately thickened femur, and short claw; 2+2 small teeth and 1+1 thin porodonts, set laterally to outer tooth and about twice longer than teeth; median notch broadly V­shaped, rounded; its width bigger than the distance between inner and outer teeth; lateral to the outer tooth the anterior border forms sloping, irregular shoulders; setae rather sparse, concentrated on the shoulder, prefemur, femur, tibia and tarsus ( Fig. 8 ).

Tergites: posterior margin of T. 1 almost straight; those of T. 3, 5, 8 and 10 slightly emarginated; those of T. 12 and 14 markedly emarginated; posterior angles of T. 1–5, 8, 10 and 12 rounded; those of T. 6, 7 and 9 abruptly rounded; those of T. 11 almost right angled, those of T. 13 either right angled or with a very short blunt projection. Coxal pores: very small and circular, 3, 3, 4(3), 3; separated from one another by about three times their own diameter ( Fig. 9 ). 14th–15th legs: larger than preceding legs; internal glandular pores: on the femur, tibia, basitarsus and distitarsus of legs 13–15; femora of male legs 14–15 thickened, with two dorsal grooves; Tibia of 15th flattened dorsally; pretarsus with a long principal claw and accessory apical claw, reaching about 1/3rd of its length ( Figs 10–11 ). Female gonopods: densely covered with macrosetae; each gonopod with two long, slen­ der and evenly pointed spurs, about four times longer than broad; second article with four distinct dorsolateral setae, third with one; claw of gonopods simple, sometimes with a very small, almost indistinct proximal denticles, dorsal one usually being larger ( Fig. 12 ).

Verhoeff (1937) described Lithobius karamani from the surroundings of Skopje, Republic of Macedonia. The very short description, somewhat resembling a diagnosis, was supplemented with a single illustration of the female gonopods. No information on the sex and number of types was mentioned in the publication. This species was listed in some general reviews (e.g. Attems, 1959; Kos, 1992; Stoev, 1997, 2001) without any further information about its taxonomic status or morphology. Although the position of L. karamani in the highly complicated systematics of the Balkan Lithobiidae can hardly be established here, I will try to incorporate it in some of the more recent identification keys. In Eason’s key (1982) to the Western European species of Lithobiomorpha it belongs to the group of L. calcaratus C.L. Koch, 1844 and L. cyrtopus Latzel, 1880 . Having a simple gonopodial claw, it differs significantly from both. In Stoev’s key (2002) to the species of genus Lithobius (Lithobius) in Bulgaria L. karamani belongs to the group of L. mutabilis L. Koch, 1962 and L. borealis Meinert, 1872 . The single claw of the female gonopods is again the main character that separates it from the former, while borealis is clearly distinguished by the presence of an additional (fourth) prefemoral spine on the 15th leg, and by the normal (unmodified) posterior legs in males. It takes almost the same position in the Matic’s key (1966) to the female Lithobius species in Romania keying out with L. mutabilis , L. cyrtopus and L. borealis (sub L. lapidicola , see also Eason, 1982). Following the key of Zalesskaja (1978) L. karamani could be allied with Lithobius icis Zalesskaja, 1978 from Turkmenistan. Both species are characterized by the lack of tergal projections, 2+2 prosternal teeth, 15th leg­pair with an accessory claw, and the single claw of the female gonopods. They are clearly separated, however, by the much longer antennae (at least 49 in icis (after Zalesskaja the apical part of the antennae of the holotype were broken) vs. 30–32 in karamani ), fewer ocelli (5–6 vs. 10–11), larger number of coxal pores (4, 4, 5, 5 separated from one another by about their own diameter vs. 2,3,3,2–3 separated by one another by about three times their diameter), etc. Although further taxonomic research may change its systematic position, for the time being L. karamani should be considered as a bona species.

General distribution. Republic of Macedonia: surroundings of Skopje, Pelister Mts, Mariovo Mts ( Fig. 13 ).

Figures

FIGURE 13. Distribution of L. karamani in the Republic of Macedonia.

FIGURES 5–12. 5–6. Lithobius lapadensis Verhoeff, 1900: 5 – head, dorsal view; 6 – maxillipede, ventral view. 7–12 Lithobius karamani Verhoeff, 1937: 7 – head, dorsal view; 8 – maxillipede, ventral view; 9 – coxa, ventro­lateral view; 10 – 14th leg, lateral/ dorso­lateral view; 11 – 15th leg, dorsal/ dorso­lateral view. 12 – female gonopodial spurs and claw (redrawn from Verhoeff, 1937). Scale bars: 1 mm (Figs 5–8), 0.5 mm (Figs 10–11). Arrows show the regenerated part of the left antenna.